Lapra Tree

The Mother Trees

Basic Information

Anatomy

Lapra trees may be best compared to Terran willow trees in overall shape. Ancient trees reach as high as around 4200 feet, or around 1400 meters. Their trunks grow to around 300 feet in diameter, or around 90 meters. Their bark is a deep blue, but their hanging leaves are red, ranging from dark to bright depending on the season. The wood itself is usually a dark brown. The granches usually grow out to around half of the trees own height.
Long, thick stems of leaves hang from the branches, with the longest ones growing out to about half the height of the tree. Ancient lapra roots may grow to be as thick as a skycar. Beneath the limbs of ancient lapras are their forests, made up of significantly smaller trees and plant life that flourish off the water that falls from the leaves of the lapra.
Artificially grown lapras, however, are usually only about a twelfth the size of an ancient lapra and never grow their forest before they are harvested. These trees, due to their proximity to other lapras, end up stunted or dying if they are never harvested.

Growth Rate & Stages

A lapra tree takes around three Lupin decades to grow to around the size of a mature Redwood tree. At this stage, its branches begin extending further outward and its leaves start growing downward. At this point, the growth rate of the tree begins to slow significantly as its forest starts growing around it. A lapra contributes to the natural growth of its forest, sacrificing its own growth rate in favor of a surrounding forest that will assist in anchoring it as it grows to its monumental size.
It takes between a millenia and a millenia and a half for a lapra to grow up to the size of the ancient lapras, and all the while its forest expands outward to the edge of its growing limbs.
The root system of a Lapra extends beyond its forest, and where the tree eventually stops growing, the root system changes of the centuries. Lapras draw a lot of nutrients from the soil, and over time can deplete the soil of nutrients to the point of it not being enough for the roots. As such, roots die before it saps too much from the ground, as the tree sacrifices sustaining the root in favor of growing another. The dead root eventually replenishes the ground as it decomposes.

Biological Cycle

Lapras change little through the seasons, and will never fully shed their leaves. Leaves instead shed throughout the year depending on their age, typically around six years before they are replaced. The most change seen in a Lapra is its leaves darken in the cold, and brighten in the heat.

Additional Information

Domestication

Ancient trees are strictly protected, but artificial lapra forests are grown and harvested regularly.
Ancient Lapras are the titans of the species, and nearly impossible to cut down. Their sheer size makes them major landmarks, and as such, every ancient Lapra and its forest are designated parks. Some cities have built around them, but the complications created by the root system may severely complicate construction and maintenance of subterranean infrastructure. Roots will be cut back if its determined to be non critical, but if a major root ends up making its way into something like a tunnel or basement, that location may be abandoned until the root recedes some centuries later. In cities built around a Lapra, there are often centuries old, abandoned underground locations that attract urban explorers.
Artificial Lapra trees are grown in forests of thousands, where across the planet, there are only 352 natural, ancient Lapras.
These artifical Lapras, due to their proximity to others of their kind, stop growing at around thirty Lupin years old, as they are unable to share the vast amounts of nutrients their root systems need to collect to continue growth. Around 90 percent die within five years, making the thirty year mark the ideal point to harvest for their lumber.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Lapra trees are grown and harvested for their hardwood, but only the trees that are artificially grown. The ancient lapras have even harder wood, but the practicality of harvesting such a tremendous tree, on top of its importance to its local ecosystem, makes its not worth the effort.
The lumber is used as any regular lumber is, but its incredibly strong nature makes it one of the best materials for wooden architecture in the galaxy.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Lapra trees are remarkably resilient - so long as they grow on Lupin. They can grow anywhere from the equator to the tundra, before dying in arctic conditions. It requires firm soil and a standing water source, however, such as one of Lupins freshwater seas, or great lakes. As such, Lapra trees are usually found around seas, but they will not reach maturity if they grow too close to each other, usually around three kilometers distance, judging by the closeness of the ancient Lapras.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Lapra trees grow forests beneath them, though what grows in the forest varies depending on the biome. These forests thrive despite not being in direct sunlight, as they survive and grow off of the water that descends down the Lapra's leaves, which fortifies the liquid with nutrients on its long journey down. Technically speaking, this makes a Lapra's forest a fungus. These growths are mutations of the local flora, and contain genetic material from the Lapra itself. A Lapra aids in reproduction of other plant life, but in doing so gives the flora these fungal growth attributes.
A Lapra's forest, however, grows slower than its non mutated counterparts, usually taking around sixty percent more time to reach maturity, and further growth. They also experience extended lifespans, normally around double the plant's natural lifetime. This allows for Lapra flora to grow larger and fuller than its natural counterparts.
The benefit the Lapra recives from this relationship is a strengthening of its root system, allowing it to grow to its maximum size without danger of collapse from strong winds or its own top heavy weight.
Normal forests may grow around a Lapra's forest without issue, but the Lapra forest, over millenia, will become denser and larger than the forest around it.

Lifespan

Indefinite, believed to be around 32,000 years.

Average Height

4,200 feet/1,400 meter (Ancient) 350 feet/120 meters (Harvest Tree)

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Dark blue bark, dark down inner wood, and red leaves.