Yellow Bread Algae
The only plant known to be able to exist in the Sulphurous Sands region of the Deep Underdark, Yellow Bread Algae is only found floating atop the sulphuric acid waters of the lake in the middle of its home region.
Despite the inhospitable conditions that chooses to live in, Yellow Bread Algae thrives in its acidic home and it has acquired a plethora of valuable abilities and uses, which are exploited by the only humanoids resident in the Sulphurous Sands, The Forsaken, who would not be able to survive without it.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Yellow Bread Algae is a slimy, mustard yellow coloured plant, that is tiny as an individual unit, but which clumps together into huge rafts of floating foliage known as blooms.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Whilst little is known about the specific needs of Yellow Bread Algae, other than that the conditions of the Sulphurous Sands are ideally suited for it, it is thought that they draw all of the nourishment that they need from the lake of sulphuric acid that it is found in, synthesising the dangerous chemical in their bodies into whatever it is that they need to survive.
Additional Information
Domestication
The unique conditions that Yellow Bread Algae need to survive mean that it would be very hard to turn it into a domesticated crop cultivated as part of formal agricultural activities. However, the people who reside in the Sulphurous Sands, the Forsaken do tend the blooms of Yellow Bread Algae that thrive on the lake of sulphuric acid, encouraging them to grow and ensuring that they do not over farm specific blooms, ensuring that they have time to recover so that they provide a continuous food source. Whilst this is a clear example of management, it is not considered to be domestic agriculture, as at the end of the day, the Forsaken have no means of creating new patches of Yellow Bread Algae.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
For those that know how to use it, Yellow Bread Algae has a plethora of uses, which makes it the key to survival in the Sulphurous Sands in the Deep Underdark. It can be consumed as a food source, both raw and cooked, is full of water, which the algae has produced from the sulphuric acid that it is surrounded by, has naturally antiseptic properties so it is used in the binding of wounds, and if boiled, the liquor that it excretes is a powerful antibiotic and painkiller.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
The only place where Yellow Bread Algae is known to thrive in huge blooms is the lake of sulphuric acid that lies at the centre of the Sulphurous Sands in the Deep Underdark. Clearly the conditions here are perfect for the organism to survive, as it is not found anywhere else on Kelbonnar’s Material Plane.
Some scholars have suggested that the algae may have even appeared as a species in that very lake and that Yellow Bread Algae has never grown anywhere else, whilst some theorise that the plant may be native to the Hellish Plane, and that the Sulphurous Sands provides the best fit to the habitats it would normally reside in on its native plane of existence.
Lifespan
Unknown, but the Forsaken claim that blooms, if not over farmed last indefinitely.
Average Height
Blooms can grow up to c.12” / 30cm in height
Average Weight
Unknown, entire blooms have never been weighed.
Average Length
Blooms have been observed as large as 165ft / 50m in length
Geographic Distribution
Related Ethnicities
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