Starfly

The Starfly is a spacefaring plant found in wildspace. Seeing the butterfly-shaped fruits of the starfly is considered a sign of good luck for spacefarers. The starfly is also valued by the Imperial Elven Navy, who form their various spelljammers, such as the armadas or men-o-war, from the fruits of enchanted stafly plants.

Description

The butterfly-like plant that most people think of when they hear the name "starfly" is actually the winged fruit of the spacefaring trees that take root and grow in the ice and dirt of comets. These "mother-trees" then produce the winged starfly fruit that floats through wildspace until settling on a new comet.

Uses

Many spelljammer crews consider the starfly to be a delicacy. The wings of the fruit transform solar rays into a sugary sweet necter that feeds the central seed. However, the central seed is extremely foul-tasting and poisonous to most humanoids.
Additionally, the Imperial Elven Navy cultivates and enchants various mother-trees to grow enlarged starflies, which are then altered and shaped even further into the various spelljamming vessels that make up the bulk of the IEN's fleet. The magic and process by which the IEN does this is a closely-guarded secret.

Basic Information

Growth Rate & Stages

ONce a starfly fruit landed on a comet, the seed burrows itself into the ice and dirt and begins absorbing them comet's minerals. As it grows larger, wing-like leaves sprout from the sapling. These wings eventually grow reflective, redirecting sunlight at the seed's newly formed water bulb. As the sun rays heat the water, bursts of steam propell the comet and sapling closer to the sphere's sun.
Once the sapling reaches optimal distance from the sun, the reflective leaves fall away and die. By the time a sapling has grown into a full mother-tree, the minerals and nutrients within the comet have been depleted. However, it is now large enough to form its own gravity plane, drawing more and more comets and debris into its atmosphere.
At full growth, a mother-tree reaches about 1,000 ft. in height and has formed enough of an atmosphere to support life. Though this is where most mother-trees stop, some continue collecting more and more comets and debris over millennia, eventually forming full planets.

Average Height

2 ft. (starfly)
1,000 ft. (mother-tree)