Hantoo Tree (H-on-too)
Basic Information
Anatomy
These dangerous trees have large, far-reaching limbs from which hang many huge brightly colored and sweet smelling fruits. These fruits attract many creatures that come to consume them, but instead of a meal the powerful poison in the berries kills the animal almost immediately (the most notable exception being the Hantoo Bird, which intentionally consumes the fruits to generate an even more powerful toxin internally). When the animal dies, they either fall among the branches or the roots of the tree, which then excrete powerful enzymes that dissolve and absorb the creature.
Genetics and Reproduction
A Hantoo Tree can grow from only a very small segment of root tissue, either a chunk being moved to a new location by weather or animal or the tree itself pushing roots away from itself to sprout new flora.
Dietary Needs and Habits
These trees gain sustenance from sunlight, but their main source of food is the creatures that die to their tainted fruit and are dissolved by the tree’s roots or branches.
Additional Information
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
Hantoo Bird benefit from these trees as food sources as well as their exploited poisons in addition to nesting in them. The tree benefits from the birds as a form of protection as well as a way to spread their roots as the birds have been observed taking bits of root and scattering them around, almost as if they are aware this will result in more trees well after they are dead and gone.
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