Tarsprig

This inconspicuous, reedy plant houses a liquid that is used similarly to tar.

Basic Information

Habitat

Typically found in swampy or wet and humid areas. Doesn't thrive well in dry or windy environments because it dries the useful sap.
Interestingly, they cannot grow outside of their home swamps or wetlands. All attempts to domesticate these plants end in failure.

Physical Characteristics

The plant grows in clusters, pin straight up. The plant is knobby with light brown to tan outside. It is easy to grasp and dry, sucking in moisture.

Growth Rate & Stages

Tiny, leafy shoots are the juvenile stage of tarsprig which grow in a week to its adult reedy form.

Harvesting

The reedy stalks must be cut above a collection container as the sap immediately begins to secrete. A reed contains what is classified as a "squirt" of sap. By cutting the stalk, the plant will regrow in a few weeks.

Refinement

Workshops of alchemists and similar folk work on the raw sap to refine it to useful tar. This tar behaves and operates just like regular coal tar, a godsend for those who live in open plains or without access to coal.

Concerns

Poaching

A rise of poachers using non-standardized methods of extracting the sap cause concern for those in the field. Often poachers only care for the short term benefit of the tar without considering the time and care to promote a fecund environment. Poaching leads to decreased crop yield and increase prices.

Black Market

Poaching stems from the lucrative black market of tarsprig sap. These black markets increase price and cut the sap with water. Only close associates receive premium quality product. Farmers who try to sell their crop to this black market for a profit end up having their farms raided by the market's poachers. The black market is closely associated with regional thieves guilds.

Conservation Status

While not under protection from extinction, the are heavily regulated. When a sizeable patch of tarsprig is found authorities must be contacted. Only proper horticulturalists are allowed to handle it.