Cucurlen

Breathing Vines

At the centre of Ganana Island, one of the larger islands of the Sparkling Chain, the lands slope inwards quite abruptly. At the bottom of that ten metre wide crater-like depression sits a small swampy lake. It is only on the banks of this lake that the cucurlen plant grows.
The plant grows thick creeping vines that have surrounded the entire lake. Most peculiarly, when one looks close enough, the vines move in unison, slowly expanding and retracting like a ribcage rising and falling with breath. It was this effect that made botanists discover that the sheer size of the cucurlen only gave the impression of a multitude of plants, when in reality it is just a single individual.

Sweet Flowers and Putrid Fruit

The cucurlen flowers as long as the temperature stays comfortably warm and the earth wet enough. The flowers have six regular purple and blue striped tepals with a dark purple flower cup from which the stamen protrude, but which hides the pistil. Pollination occurs by small reptiles that call the island home, most notably the tropical moon gecko. They crawl into a flower cup to drink from the nectar at the bottom. In the process pollen sticks to their sticky skin, and so is taken to the next flower the small critter crawls into for another snack of nectar.
The cucurlen produces a large dark green and purple oblong fruit that looks like a cross between sweet melon and water squash: a thick skin and pulpy insides. When opened it smells absolutely terrible, like a corpse claimed by the swamp. It has not yet been discovered which, and if at all, animals include the cucurlen in their diet.

Medicinal Purpose

While not enjoyed as food, the cucurlen was discovered to have healing properties, specifically against scale rot, a condition that affects fish, but also sometimes merfolk. For this purpose the fruits are occasionally harvested and the pulp stored in tight jars deep in the sea.