Oddball Basket-Grasses of the Early Muricene

The basket-grasses are a quite successful subgenus of derived buffalograsses. The group is characterized by its leaf structure: they are arranged in a neat rosette, radiating from a highly-compressed stem. Some species have a unique spin on this form, such as the barrel-grasses, which grow steadily outward in a ring-like shape. This is due to their underground petioles, which grow away from the center of the plant until an empty patch of dirt is left in the center. Rhizomes are found many basket-grasses as well, inherited from their turfgrass ancestors. 

Aboveground stems are present in only one extant species; while the ancestral basket-grass had a small one, most modern forms have lost it entirely. This is not the case, however, for the basket-bush (B. alticulmus), the sister species to all other baskets. Unlike all its relatives, it has retained its stem even after all these years. It lives in the temperate regions of northern Loxodia, the same area where basket-grasses originated. Its trunk is around five centimeters thick, sturdy, and can reach almost 40 centimeters tall. Its blades are typical for this lineage, forming a hemispherical "basket" that can reach over half a meter in height and radius. While it is overshadowed by the larger palm-grass pseudotrees it shares its range with, it is a key component of post-disturbance succession. Like all basket-grasses, its blades can grow extremely quickly, allowing it to take over an area in a matter of weeks following a flood, fire, or blight outbreak. Its stem, on the other hand, is slow-growing, an adaptation that ensures not too much of the plant's limited energy reserves are spent on increasing its height. Only after its first year does it noticeably lift itself off the ground. Over the next few seasons, it continues to grow, stopping only after its slower-growing neighbors overtake it. Like all basket-grasses, though, this species is capable of producing many thousands of tiny seeds, each so lightweight that it can ride the wind for miles. With luck, by the time their parents have been completely choked out, these grains will germinate in some newly-decimated location, ready to repeat the cycle once more.

Even within the derived baskets, though, strange-looking grasses abound. In the ten-year desert wastelands of Loxodia, one member of this subgenus weathers the years of desiccation and comes out intact. This is Bouteloua pseudomortis, the lazarus-basket. Other than the descendants of the short-lived Dawn Muricene desert-grasses, this is the only species that can survive here. During brief wet periods, it is a vibrant green plant, measuring abut half a meter across. Its leaves are broad, pinnate, and almost fern-like in shape. When it blooms, its spike can reach two meters in height, allowing its seeds to scatter far and wide. It even has a presence in the Abelian interior desert, the result of a few extraordinarily lucky seeds that found themselves carried thousands of miles by high-altitude winds. Gene flow is so limited between the two continents, though, that the populations are certain to diverge into separate species if they persist into later ages. 

The lazarus-basket gets its name from its signature ability: it is the only plant that can survive the long dry periods that characterize its habitat. While the other desert-grasses all perish when the rains end, this one prepares to enter a long dormancy. Its leaflets curl inwards, then the leaves themselves fold up into a compact ball. As they dry, metabolic activity slows to an almost-complete halt. The plant clings to whatever drops of water remain in its tissues. As photosynthesis requires water as a reactant, it subsists entirely on stored energy during these years. When the rains finally do return, the leaves can unfurl and come back to life in less than a day. This gives them a distinct advantage over other desert grasses, which need several days to sprout and won't reach maturity until nearly a month later. The lazarus-baskets, on the other hand, are already fully mature as soon as they reopen, allowing them to immediately set themselves to the task of making more of themselves.

Hot interior deserts are not, however, the only type of dry environment on Apterra. On the inland side of the north Loxodian mountains, a more moderate climate prevails. While little rain ever falls, every morning the land gets moisture from another source: thick clouds of fog that condense as moist ocean air meets the cool mountaintops. One type of basket-grass has a strange adaptation to survive here: its leaves coil and loop, forming odd corkscrew shapes. One of the smallest baskets, its wiry blades never reach above 15 centimeters in height. Their shape increases the surface area for the fog to condense on, and it remains sufficiently compact that not too much is lost to evapotranspiration. The folded leaves also serve as tiny rain gutters, funneling droplets down to the base of the plant, where it can be absorbed by the grass's shallow, fibrous root system.