Onyx Flower

The flower that leaves no light behind.

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The Onyx is a very dark flower, so dark you wouldn't even call it black. It leaves no light behind, and is therefore seen as "true black". It is also called the black hole for that same reason. The only thing that is visible, other than the outline of the flower itself, is the small stamens in the middle of the flower, that lights up and looks like small stars.
The Onyx stores a tremendous amount of energy, the rays from the star Alpha Centauri A is "eaten" (harvested) by the flower - and it’s always hungry.
An Onyx is quite hard to find in the wild, and has only been observed in a clearing not far from Primis - well, sometimes it seems to be close and other times they can't seem to find it.
Settlers have managed to collect "seeds" from it - which is a whole other story in itself - and brought them to Primis. Luckily, humans are at a point where they can cultivate the Onyx, but they are not always successful and the flower doesn't grow as big as the ones they've observed in the wild. Some of the flowers they've planted also seem to disappear at random moments and sometimes the same flower that was gone suddenly comes back.

Stages of Growth

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• The flower starts as a small sprout, hard to spot.


• Leaves form and the sprout is now 5 cm tall.


• Flower heads start to form. At first, they look just like small berries.


• The flower heads opens, and it begins to "eat" energy from the sun.


• When the flower is mature, the stamens begin to light up, and becomes visible to the human eye.

It's unknown how the flower/plant dies, as it has never been observed before. Even the plants that were planted by the human hands, had never been seen dying. All of them had turned into dust at some point - and never after the same interval of time. So for now, it's very unpredictable.

Image of the Onyx flower

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by CatRobi

This is how the human eye sees the Onyx flower.

Importance of the Onyx

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With it's magnificent energy properties, the flowers from the Onyx plant can be used for many important things. The energy the flower "eats" from Alpha Centauri A is permanently stored in it's organic structure - this essentially means that the flower is a super powered battery that doesn't loose it's energy if it's not used in a long period of time. It's unlike anything humans have invented before.
One flower can power the whole settlement for several years.
This is why it's very important that they learn all they can from it, and maybe figure out it's properties. Because who wouldn't like to harvest the suns energy and store it for later?

Locations found

The Onyx is very rare and hard to find. It grows only in one known place on the equater and has only been observed in the wild less than 50 times.

Scientific name

Sun Eaters (sol comedenti)

Origin

Unknown

Illustration by the Nadvë

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by CatRobi

The illustration shows the flower, but it's not just a black hole with some light in the middle, it's drawn with dark blue colors and lighter dots spread across the petals.
It seems like the Nadvë could see something we can't.