Wirebush

Wirebush is a plant species found on the forest floor of the megaforests. Its razor-sharp vines and greyish colour are what give it its name, the former making it a useful building material for some birds' nests to keep out predators, or making the locations where it grows an ideal place for burowing prey species to make their homes. The species is incredibly common, and where it is present, its branches cover a good portion of the ground. This alone can make it difficult to traverse the megaforests, even without the dense shrubbery and megafauna threatening travellers.

Anatomy

Wirebush is not really a bush, more akin to a vine with many long and tangled branches. The species does not have any leaves, and acts as a decomposer in its habitat. Its roots are deep and sturdy, keeping the species in place for its entire lifespan. Its roots are covered in spined offshoots, which make it more difficult to pull out of the soil. They also like to wrap around the roots of nearby trees, futher solidifying their location as well as sapping from some of the tree's resources. These roots also make fully removing the species impossible. The species' vines are wire-thin, and are flat and sharp. Birds that have mistakenly flown into wirebush have become injured enough to lose their flight, so most larger animals avoid it. Smaller animals, however, can use the plant to defend their homes. Birds will surround their nests with it, rodents digging their burrows underneath it, and even some of the sapient species, the jylar in particular, will use it to make fences around their homes or settlements. The species does not typically grow very far up into the underbrush, and so the qelka rarely ever make use of it.

Geographic Distribution

• Megaforest