Empress-of-Hearts

Never has any fruit induced so much kinkshaming as the empress-of-hearts, which smells sweeter than any nectar when one is stuffed full of food and rancid as a fart when one's stomach is empty. It took folks some time to figure that out. There's a reason it's often the last course at ritzy feast.
The other reason is, the empress-of-hearts sits at the Wildcard's Diet, catering to those seeking wider hips and a plumper ass. It's by far one of the more popular members, and damn-near guaranteed to show up as the final dish at any rich folks' party, when everyone's so stuffed they can't help but grab themselves a cut of empress. Common preparations include the lady-in-fishnets (a lattice-covered pie), imperial heart cider, and imperial heart cognac (alternatively imp-heart cider/cognac). On a full stomach, it tastes like cherries, peaches, and rum mixed into one fruit.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The tree itself is quite like any fruit tree, albeit with purple solid-eight-shaped leaves, extremely red wood, finger-length thorns, and a tendency to grow its branches very wide. The fruit is like a large, bright-red peach, but upside-down and much more malleable. The only reason it's cooked (besides to get more mutagen out of it) is to make it easier to peel off the quite woolly skin.

Genetics and Reproduction

The fruit has a sizable pit, which breaks free from the super-fragile casing of the fruit quite easily just by falling off the tree. However, the seed can't grow if it's too close to its parent as it won't get enough light, so it's not uncommon to see numerous dead empress-of-hearts saplings around the trunk and radiating out. The first seed tends to successfully plant once the parent can grow no more.

Growth Rate & Stages

The first fruit come in at least twenty years down the line. Empress-of-hearts are a commitment in time to grow. They don't start being powerfully mutagenic 'til about seven more years, either.

Ecology and Habitats

It needs plenty of light, and thus lends itself best to planters in the taller ruins and to the banks of rivers. And because its leaves hog so much light, few plants can grow beneath them. They'd also thrive on Codacote if they got enough fresh water.

Biological Cycle

Though the leaves turn brown come winter and fall off, the fruit is still produced year-round. It seems to just slightly struggle in wintertime, but its genetic engineering is solid.

Additional Information

Domestication

Efforts to selectively breed the empress-of-hearts have been futile; the lock on its genes is solid as steel. Of course, it's easy enough to grow, so long as one prunes the branches that venture beyond the property.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Empress-of-hearts is the premier ass-expansion mutagen, broadening the hips and rendering cushier the buttocks. The wood's also sometimes used for decorative purposes.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Rare now, the empress-of-hearts was once found throughout the Jungle of Queens. Now, it's much harder to acquire the unmodified fruit.

Lifespan

Undocumented

Conservation Status

Though rare in the wild, empress-of-hearts can be found cultivated in the gardens of rich ass fetishists, farms of cosmeceutical companies, and orchards of the Velvet Postern.

Average Height

Between a merfolk and a half to two and a half merfolk

Average Length

The canopies can stretch the length of a football field if uncontested