False Garden Guardian

Grab Grass

Written by Endrise

We lost three men to a bunch of leaves. Literal, leaves.
How difficult is it for any of you to cut down a god damn plant?!

— False Garden Hunter

False Garden Guardians are a unique plant species found in the Plane of Air, growing on the back of False Gardens. Notorious for its hostility to anything that is not its host, the vines protect it with their life, proving to be the biggest threat to anything hunting the species.

Basic Information

Anatomy

False Garden Guardians are vine-like plants that form a large web with multiple rooting spots. Its long stems often have additional tendrils to latch onto any support it finds with microscopic hooks to dig into a surface. One root area can produce a dozen of these stems.

Each stem is thick with leaves that produce an adhesive substance, while the hooks not used to root into a surface harden into thorns instead. Some thorns are over an inch long.

Genetics and Reproduction

The plant relies on vine buds to grow and reproduce, letting stems sprout out from one area to another to expand its territory. A single specimen can achieve hundreds of feet worth of vines covering a False Garden, sometimes making up half of its surface area.

During the mating season of the False Garden, it holds out budding stems to latch onto other False Gardens. Stems that can hook into the blubber of another host end up ripping off the main body, allowing a new cluster of stems to grow out of the rooted body.

This progress can continue indefinitely, allowing a single guardian to spread over entire schools of False Gardens alone. If anything, some of the hosts even encourage the spread.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Guardians feed from the blubber and blood of a False Garden, digging into blood vessels to collect nutrients. It evolved this dietary need for a host so much that it cannot exist without the other species, making them unable to survive in normal soil.

To supplement its need, it traps prey of all sizes within its sticky leaves and vines. Smaller insects and animals get stuck on the leaves before breaking them down with enzymes, while larger prey gets tangled in their vines. For the latter, the struggle of prey allows loose roots to hook into the flesh, allowing them to draw blood and drain them over time.

Additional Information

Uses, Products & Exploitation

The adhesive on their leaves can get used for patching small holes as an emergency seal, or extracted to make glue. However, its bio-degredable nature makes it not ideal for long-term usage. Combined with the enzymes ruining surfaces, it is only used in absolute emergencies.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Most of the plant’s actions rely on immediate touch, as the leaves have delicate hairs, allowing it to sense anything brushing up to it. This allows it to react to outside dangers and grab potential food, as loose stems can then grapple anything in its vicinity.

Older specimens rooted deep into the blubber of a False Garden can also sense changes in its blood. Often a response to direct panic of the creature, this allows it to ready itself preemptively against incoming dangers, allowing multiple stems at once to defend its host.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Garden Guardians form a symbiotic relationship with the respective False Gardens, as the plant species depends on them for their survival. Their blubber provides a fertile ground for the plant to burrow in, allowing it to grow and spread via other False Gardens.

In return, the plant helps remove unwanted threats from their body, acting as a safety net against pests. A False Garden’s surface becomes a tangled mess of vines, and larger guardians can even extend out vines to make their reach even greater. With it, it provides an extra layer of protection against natural predators and even prevents parasites from clinging on.

In more desperate moments, a Guardian can also sacrifice some of its vines to strangle enemies by wrapping itself around their throats and cutting off air supply. This type of behaviour even goes as far as attacking Airship propellers, tangling them mid flight to disable their mobility.

Lifespan

50+ years, though can infinitely spread

Average Height

1 meter per stem

Offensive Defence

As poaching False Gardens got worse, the species learned to use their Guardians in more clever, ways. Rather than use it as protection, some like to provoke its defence mechanisms by ramming into an Airship's hull, tangling the vine into its machinery and clogging it.

More extreme attacks even try to ram straight into the pilots and crew of a ship, trapping them into the thick foliage or die from the thorns. Untangling them becomes an even worse nightmare, as the vines need surgical removal to prevent scarring or bleeding out.

Many are so aware of its efficiency that mother Gardens would allow Guardians to spread to their young early on. With it, it devalues the blubber that poachers seek and protects the young by themselves.