Weald Lantern
The pale pastel glow casts a calming light through the verdant canopies.A parasitic fungus native to the tall deciduous forests of Prismaria, the weald lantern is one of the most distinctive and easily identifiable fungi living in the world. Their fruiting bodies are instantly recognizable, hanging down from the boughs and branches of trees like small lanterns. These fungi begin to emerge from the bark in the warm nights of late spring and early summer, maturing in a handful of weeks, and persisting into the autumn, only withering and dying when the weather turns cold and bitter. Their stems are thick and superficially resemble wax coated ropes. They terminate in a bulbous, pear shaped fruiting body that grows and swells as they mature. These immature fruiting bodies are typically roughly the size of an apple of a pear, but can grow larger to the size of a grapefruit. Once they mature, the fruiting body splits open at the bottom, splitting into a number of strips that curl upwards to expose their spore carrying gills. These gills glow brightly in pale pastel colours. Greens, blues, indigos, reds, yellows, and oranges are all common colours that can be seen high in the forest canopies at night time. Immature fruiting bodies can occasionally be mistaken for certain types of fruit, and as a result are sometimes eaten by accident. Weald lanterns are inedible, and not safe to eat. While not dangerously toxic like many other fungi, weald lanterns will cause severe stomach pains and vomiting, making them useful to quickly purge a person's system in the event they consume food that has been tainted or is otherwise poisonous.
Geographic Distribution
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