Puffball

The puffball is a small halophilic retinalphyte that grows in clumps on beaches all around southern Arctica, Yama, and Kub Shay. It is a common site in estuaries, salt marshes, and near the coast. Puffballs grow quickly and die young, but provide a source of nutrients for many costal and marsh dwellers. Pictured here a stand of puffballs on the western coast of Yama soak up some salt and late morning sunshine. [Creature design by Dapper Dino]

Basic Information

Anatomy

Pufballs are much reduced compared to their boseo magno ancestors, their round leaves are completely gone, and now they are just a clump of stems that photosynthesize. The stems share a central bulb that itself sends off root like branches into the substrate. The bulb is hollow, as are the filaments. This simple system of hollow spaces allows water to diffuse throughout the organism, as well as nutrients to diffuse out of the photosynthetic fibers.
Bourtsabruo yamanensis is characterized by particularly curly filaments.
B. arctos has particularly thick filaments, and unlike other species it goes into a hibernation period during the local winter where the filaments die off. Only with the return of regular sunlight does it grow its second coat of filaments and prepare for reproduction.
B. australis has straight filaments and a prominent bulb which can sometiems stick partially out of the substrate in parcicularly large individuals.
B. borealis is nearly identical to B. australis, but they reproduce at opposite times of the year and are separated geographically.

Genetics and Reproduction

Puffballs have mostly given up on vegetative growth, although it can happen if the organism gets big enough and its roots extend far enough. Instead each bulb has an internal cavity where spores are stored. As the puffball approaches the end of its lifespan the bulb will burst open with some force releasing a cloud of spores this always happens around the local summer solstice and when spores meet each other they will form a new embryo which may form a new puffball if it lands in appropriate soil.

Growth Rate & Stages

A new spore that lands on suitable soil will within a local day send one shoot up, and one shoot down. The upward shoot will become the first filament and the downward shoot will be the first root, and will later expand into a tuber like structure. After about 4 local days the bulb will have expanded and the organism will now have a few dozen filaments as well as additional root structures radiating out from the bulb. After about a local year of growth, the pace of which depends on the suitability of the soil, it will begin to prepare for reproduction.

Ecology and Habitats

Being halophiles, puff balls are always found near salty or brackish water. Most often they are found on coasts, estuaries, salty lakes, etc. Each of the four species in genus Bourtsabruo has its own geographical range.
B. yamanensis: Yama
B. arctos: Southern Arctica
B. australis: temperate southern Kub Shay
B. borealis: temperate northern Kub Shay

EXTINCT

Genetic Ancestor(s)