Sungold Trees

Not to be confused with the currency, the sungold.

"...the banks of this river were lined with a tree of kind I had never seen before. Their flowers, yellow, I gave the name 'sungolds'."

— Halemica the Great

Called the kaldrel by the Aradin, the sungold tree is an important Thripian resource native to Arad and found exclusively on the banks of the Meleatte River. It's flowers produce a nectar which, when collected by bees, is refined into ichor. As such, it is highly prized and valued and is often considered a symbol of great wealth and good fortune.

Appearance

The sungold tree is so named for its yellow flowers. The tree itself lives for around a hundred and fifty years, but may exceed that age when cultivated correctly, and yet only grows to a general height of three to four meters. It has a smooth, grey-green trunk and emerald colored leaves. Interwoven within the foliage are its famous flowers which have five petals and a single orange-colored bell which emerges from its center and contains both nectar and filaments. Their slender roots regularly dip into the water of the river near the bank so that they can drink directly from the source.

Properties

Sungolds begin life as saplings and grow quite quickly, usually maturing at around ten or twenty years old, depending on their access to water and nutrients. The tree flowers all year round though it may produce less during the dry season when the Meleatte runs lower. Sungolds, when fertilized with pollen spread by bees, produce fruits known as belits. Belits have bright yellow skin and white flesh with a hollow center within which lies a stalk containing fifty or so seeds. Belits are eaten by the birds native to the Meleatte who excrete or drop the seeds so that more trees may grow. Attempts have been made by many other settlements around the world to plant sungolds, however all attempts have resulted in the trees dying of unknown causes. In cases where they did grow, they produced no flowers or fruit and thus did not reproduce. Many merchants, however, still attempt to sell sungold seeds to naive or uninformed customers.
The most famous feature of the sungold tree is its yellow flowers for which it is named. Containing valuable nectar, this substance, when refined by bees, becomes ichor. Able to grant visions of the future, ichor is highly valued by the Thripian people as the source of their wealth and status as a powerful trade center. The nectar on its own, though far less potent, is also known to temporarily provide abilities such as foresight, though usually this is limited to vague premonitions such as feelings of certainty or uncertainty about a given situation. Sungold leaves are also thought to have special properties alongside the flower petals themselves, the roots of the tree and the wood within. Indeed, moths native to Arad, whose diet as larvae consists of sungold leaves, are notably more intelligent when compared to other insects and are trained to send messages. Whether or not this is due to their eating habits is not clear, however.

Significance

As a prized resource found nowhere other than on the banks of the Meleatte, the sungold tree is a source of great pride for Thripia. Their currency the sungold is named after the tree as is their emblem the Sungold Bee. It is linked in their art to ideas of wealth, success, good fortune and the realization of ambition. Those owning a sungold are viewed in high esteem largely because the tree is notoriously difficult to cultivate. The same prestige is not applied to farmers, however. Despite having fields often filled with sungold trees, their land is typically considered, albeit indirectly, property of the guilds. Their role equates more to caretakers than owners given that farmers are widely viewed as stagnant and unambitious; a sign of weakness of character for Thripians. Sungold trees are considered a gift from the gods and, in particular, the sun god Sargos who rules over men's destinies. Ichor, sometimes described poetically as his blood, is given to mankind through the tree. Sungolds are of divine origin in no uncertain terms. Damaging, destroying or neglecting the tree is therefore considered a shameful misstep given that is an affront to both society and Sargos.

Lifespan

~150 years