Flora of the Middle Muricene, Part 1

The world of Apterra has already become unrecognizable from the desolate, species-poor planet of a million years ago. Even many of the ecosystems of the Early Muricene are long gone now, replaced by the newcomers of the past 900 millennia. Tens of thousands of species of plants now cover every inch of habitable land, feeding the equally-diverse animals that share their world. Some grasses haven't changed much at all since they were introduced. Turfgrasses still compose a sizable fraction of global plant biomass, being common in grasslands and other open environments the world over. While all look quite similar, they hail from a variety of lineages. The temperate varieties (which now compose the genus Exopoa) are closely related to basket-grasses, while savanna-dwelling forms (Xanthopoa) are cousins of the hydrostalks. On the open prairie, one can find several types of Altipoa, basal relatives of the chain-grasses, and in the tropics grow species in the genus Pluvipoa, a group quite genetically close to the fan-grass. Arctic forms (Cryopoa) are descendants of prior spiny-grasses, while those in the deserts (Psammapoa) are among the progeny of the short-lived desert-grasses. While these don't form anything close to a monophyletic clade, they'll often be referred to collectively as turfgrasses due to their similar form and niche.

One group of derived plants was already diverse at 100,000 Post-Abandonment, and it has become even more so in the present day. Basket-grasses are now a component of nearly every ecosystem, spreading across all continents with their fluffy, lightweight seeds. They now make up an entire taxonomic family called the Canistrophyllaceae, containing at least a thousand species spread Apterra-wide. The basket-bushes, most basal of the entire group, are no longer merely remnants of primitive forms. In the last 200,000 years in particular, they've experienced a golden age, diversifying into around 30 species of pseudotrees in the genus Dendrocanistrum, the largest of which grow to six meters or more. Like all baskets, they have fast-growing blades, recovering quickly from herbivores. They also have slow-growing trunks, only increasing in height during times of plenty. Once they reach over two meters in height, out of reach of most herbivores, they begin to accelerate their trunk growth at the expense of their blades. This allows them to remain competitive against other pseudotrees as woodland communities mature.

Of the non-stemmed baskets, the water-lily-mimics (Hydrocanistrum) are the earliest-branching. This group is common but not diverse, numbering only a dozen or so members. They dominate newly-formed lakes and temporarily flooded lowlands, forming short-lived monocultures before being outcompeted by other semi-aquatic plants. By this point, though, their seeds will already have reached some other patch of wetland to begin the cycle anew. On the opposite environmental extreme, the desert-baskets have seen mixed success. The lazarus-basket is gone, driven to extinction by shorter-lived but more prolific grasses of other groups. The fog-desert-baskets (Aridocanistrum), however, are now a major player in all of Apterra's deserts. Some retain the odd blades of their ancestors, while others, living in areas without regular fog, have evolved succulent, water-holding leaves. Both hot and cold arid environments now see these baskets growing in abundance, though they're far from the only lineage in such biomes.

The reed-like group (Canistrophyllum), is the type genus of the family, generally representing the basic morphology that led it and its relatives to success. It makes up almost a quarter of all basket species, sprouting on the banks of every waterway. While many of its members retain the tall, thin blades plesiomorphic to the genus, others are more compact. In general, the latter is the case for species growing in prairies, beaches, or any habitat free of tall pseudotrees competing for light. This genus is the sister group to the massive subfamily Insulocanistroideae, containing the numerous descendants of baskets once endemic to the Gecko Isles. There are now more Gecko Isles baskets than all other basket-grasses combined, and many members of this group have long since recolonized the mainland. The prairie-baskets (Brevicanistrum) specifically are immensely successful in the modern day, being the only basket-grass lineage capable of directly competing with turfgrasses on the open plains. One strange offshoot of this genus is the can-grass (B. impervius), whose blades form a watertight seal surrounding the meristem, creating a cup-like rosette capable of holding almost a hundred milliliters of water. This species is found in northern temperate rain-pseudoforests of Loxodia and Ailuropia, especially in nutrient-poor soils. To cope with this, it is tiny, being one of the smallest baskets in the world. Debris and detritus that fall into its pool of water also help fertilize the plant, making up for its nitrogen-deficient substrate. The breakaway-basket and thorny-basket are both extant, though they number no more than a half-dozen species apiece, while the pennant-grasses are still prevalent across Apterra's beaches, as well as other windy environments such as mountain-tops and cold steppes.

Other than the generalist prairie-baskets, the breakaway stars of the basket-grass family are the barrel-grasses (Doliophylleae). This tribe is divided into two genera, Megadolius and Microdolius, representing the giant and annual barrel-grasses respectively. The former is a relatively small genus of no more than 50 species, divided into two general body plans. The first is quite similar to the original giant barrels, reaching on average four meters in height and three in width. Its blades have a slight inward curve, resulting in their common name of keg-grasses. This feature ensures that, when a leaf dies, it falls into the center of the plant, building up a mound of decaying matter that fertilizes both the keg-grass and its commensal inhabitants. The other lineage within Megadolius has abandoned the immense stature of its ancestors, being no taller than the annual barrels it shares its range with. In addition to growing wider over time through elongated underground petioles, it can also spread with rhizomes, slowly expanding into a circle up to ten meters across. If this circle is broken, it will continue growing in its new shape. After many years, this usually results in a curled, meandering form. These are called loop-grasses and are common components of pseudoforest understories. 

The annual barrels, meanwhile, display a much greater variety of forms, though many are no longer as short-lived as their Early Muricene ancestors. They have many representatives on the prairie, often being the first to sprout after a wildfire due to their resilient rhizomes. They are then overtaken by turfgrasses, rat- or woodlouse-grasses, and the aforementioned prairie-baskets, going dormant once more until the next disturbance. On mountains, the buttress-barrel (Microdolius altus) has inward-pointing blades, creating a conical shape that provides stability in strong winds. Desert barrel-grasses (M. xericus) join the descendants of fog-desert baskets in Apterra's hot arid environments, their thick leaves holding ample supplies of water to last through all but the harshest droughts. Finally, in the patchwork pseudoforests like those seen in the east of Loxodia, thorny barrels (M. spinatus) are a common sight, forming thickets alongside rat-briars and palm-grasses. They've succeeded where the thorny-baskets failed due to their less orderly leaf arrangement, leaving fewer gaps for herbivores to snag a bite. 

The rat-grasses, despite often appearing generic and unspeciaized, are one of the most dominant buffalograss lineages on the planet. Some basal members are nearly indistinguishable from regular old turfgrasses, such as the diminutive Muripoa. Despite this, all members of the family Magnigranaceae share a few ancestral features. All maintain a symbiotic relationship with rats, whom they rely on to disperse their large seeds. Without their companions, rat-grass seeds would simply fall at the base of their parent plant, leaving them vulnerable to overcrowding and competition with their own kin. As such, rat-grasses are generally absent in rat-free areas, most notably the Gecko Isles. On the mainland, though, their strategy has led to massive success, as they feed the population of the very animals responsible for their own reproduction. 

A tremendous diversity of rat-grasses now exist. The ratstem, Magnigranus, is a quite normal-looking annual grass, forming a thick clump of, on average, 20-centimeter blades at ground level. When it comes time to flower, it forms a tall spike that can extend over a meter off the ground. Additional blades (technically bracts) grow at regular intervals along its length, terminating in an inflorescence containing between 10 and 100 large, nutritious seeds. One interesting member of this genus is the salty ratstem (M. littoralis), which grows on the beaches surrounding the algae-choked inland sea nestled between Abeli and Loxodia. It can occasionally be seen spreading its roots onto the algal mat itself, though such individuals generally live only a few weeks before succumbing to the microbes' toxic waste products. Salty ratstems are on the smaller side for their genus, the tips of their stalks reaching no more than 35 centimeters tall. They also produce only a handful of seeds, reproducing exceptionally slowly even for a rat-grass. However, since they have little competition at the water's edge, they still make a good living there. Together with their more traditional ratstem cousins, they form the type genus that represents all rat-grasses.

Moving one step further into the more derived branch of the family, we can find the most speciose of all rat-grass genera. The prairie rat-grasses (Altigranus) are a cosmopolitan group containing over 2,000 members. They have entirely lost the basal ground-level leaves of their ancestors, relying entirely on the blades attached to their stems. These large annuals are among the most common tall grasses of the temperate plains, growing to 1.5-2 meters. While this would appear to place their flowers out of their symbiotes' reach, they solve this problem with the sheer mass of their mature seeds. Once they're ripe, the 50-250 large grains cause the entire stem to collapse under their weight, delivering a meal directly into the hungry mouths of granivorous rodents. This also clears the way for new stems of the same plant, which reach full height again in less than a month. 

Close cousins of the previous genus, the rat-grains are another successful lineage in many of Apterra's seasonal savannas and pseudoforests. This prolific genus, known to science as Murigranus, has over 100 species, all of which employ one of two strategies. First, the rat-wheats entice their dispersers with bountiful supplies of grain. Each plant can bear tens of thousands in a single season, devoting nearly all its energy towards seed production. By overwhelming the local rat populations, they ensure at least a handful of their offspring will successfully germinate the following spring. The other type of rat-grain is the rat-corn. This is among the largest plants on the grassland, capable of reaching 2.5 meters tall. Its robust stalk allows granivorous rats to access its cobs by climbing. Like most rat-grasses, though, it is still an annual plant, reaching its full size in just over 90 days. It produces many hundreds of seeds per stalk, but these are hard, dry, and non-nutritious. From a rat's perspective, the real bounty is the thick, juicy cob they grow upon. They often discard the seeds in pursuit of this calorie-rich stem, allowing new rat-corn plants to sprout freely when the next rainy season begins.

The rat-reeds (Floriculmus) are descended from tall semi-aquatic rat-grasses that grew around Abeli's northern estuary 900,000 years ago. They are the tallest members of the family (though certain rat-corns may be larger by mass), growing on the banks of freshwater and brackish waterways the world over. They have the unique trait of dropping their lower blades as their stalks grow, preventing them from rotting during extended periods of submersion. This trait also helps avoid grazers, which generally ignore the tough, calorie-poor stems of this genus. Their flowers grow on tillers emerging from these old nodes about halfway up the plant, allowing them to remain within the reach of their rodentian allies. They are the longest-lived of the entire group, with lifespans averaging around a decade. 

Finally, while most rat-grasses live in open habitats, one lineage specializes in survival in dense pseudoforests. The rat-briars, already a significant presence in some ecosystems during the Early Muricene, have diversified into over 100 species that now compose the genus Acuphyllum. These are one of the most common understory plants in tropical, temperate, and even some subarctic pseudoforests, providing food and shelter to small prey animals. They are notable for being the only type of rat-grass capable of surviving without rats at all. Their ancestors adapted a two-for-one strategy, employing both rats and kiwis as mutualistic partners. As a result, one species of rat-briar has abandoned its mammalian symbionts altogether. A few seeds hitched a ride on a raft of vegetation around 300,000 years ago, reaching the shores of one of the Gecko Isles. While rat dispersers were absent here, kiwis were abundant. Reproductive success was limited, though, by the fact that none of the kiwis were very keen on eating the rat-briars' seeds, resulting in a slow rate of reproduction and dispersal. Within the past 200,000 years, though, this lineage has evolved an unconventional solution to this challenge. It now grows in the gallery pseudoforests where many island birds rear their young, bearing seeds just in time for their arrival. These are abnormally high in simple sugars, so much so that they begin to rot and ferment after falling from the plant. Only the outer layers of the seed undergo this process; the embryo inside is unaffected. Birds are attracted to these plants, which have long since learned the effects of consuming these grains. In fact, the drunk-grass (A. inebrius) actually improves the kiwis' reproductive success by increasing their libido after they eat it. As their stomach acid is weaker than that of rodents, the seeds can then pass through their digestive tracts unharmed, germinating wherever the bird defecates.

Perhaps the only family of grasses more diverse than the rat-grasses is Saccharophytaceae - the woodlouse-grasses. These are divided into the skystalks and palm-grasses (Saccharophytoideae and Pseudodrendroideae respectively), a split that dates back as far as 30,000 PA. The skystalks, being by far the more species-rich of the two, are themselves grouped into two tribes. The giant skystalks, or Sylvestrosacchareae, are respresented by three genera. The pillar skystalk (Sylvestrosaccharus) is little changed from its ancestral form, continuing to grow to immense heights in the gaps between pseudotree canopies. While somewhat larger and sturdier on average than Early Muricene forms, it remains an annual grass; it lasts no more than six months after reaching maturity. Its smaller cousin, the swaystalk (Ephemerosaccharus), is even more short-lived; its thin and weak stem rarely survives more than a month upon reaching full height. Having invested little energy into its culm and foliage, it can then produce tens of thousands of seeds, each less than a millimeter in diameter. As many as ten generations of swaystalks may live and die within a single growing season. Lastly, the smokestalk (Fumosaccharus) lies dormant as seeds in the soil, potentially for up to ten years, until a fire destroys the surrounding pseudoforest. The heat triggers rapid growth, and the stalk grows to over six meters in a matter of weeks. Like the swaystalk, it will then promptly be toppled by the next rainstorm. By then, though, its own grains will be in the dirt, ready to await the next wildfire. 

The tribe Saccharophyteae, containing all the descendants of the more moderately-sized prairie skystalks, has nearly two thousand extant members. They are the dominant tall and mid-height grasses of the woodlouse-grasslands, with additional species populating pseudoforests worldwide. The amber skystalk (Saccharophytum), which derives its common name from the color of its foliage once it begins to flower, is the type genus of the entire family. It can be considered the woodlouse-grasses' equivalent to the rat-grains. It differs, though, in the fact that its seeds are small and non-nutritious. This is a trait all skystalks share; they store a lot of carbohydrate energy in their vegetative parts, while their seeds are small and borderline inedible. As a result, their blades are far more nutritious than those of rat-grasses, which focus their efforts on near-constant seed production and consequently possess dry, calorie-deficient leaves and stems.

Some diminutive skystalks are capable of growing in densities that make them resemble turfgrasses. The sodstalk (Microsaccharus) is an abundant prairie grass that lives in the shadows of its taller cousins. Like all members of its family, this genus is incapable of vegetative reproduction via underground stems. This adaptation allows skystalks to avoid the negative consequences of having no dedicated seed dispersers; older plants won't overshadow their own seedlings if they grow entirely vertically, never expanding outwards. Instead, dense colonies of sodstalks comprise thousands of individual plants, growing so tightly-packed that they appear to be a single, extensive mat of vegetation.

Semi-aquatic members of the skystalk family, like the rat-reeds, drop their lower leaves as they grow. The lakestalk (Hydrosaccharus) grows along riverbanks and estuaries; at high tide, only the very tip of its three-meter stem peeks above the waterline. This is a precarious life for its resident woodlice, but provides safety from predators and parasites when the water rises. The blade-dropping tendencies of this genus are shared by its sister taxon, Pyrosaccharus, also known as the flamestalk. This is a pseudoforest-dweller, slightly smaller than its cousin, and it employs impressive fire-retardant properties. When it sheds its foliage, the sheath of the blade remains, forming a bark-like covering around the culm. When a fire approaches, this helps protect the vulnerable inner layers of the plant. In the event that this first line of defense fails, the "bark" can rapidly peel off upon igniting, preventing the grass's upper leaves from catching fire. As a result, this plant is often one of only a few to survive major pseudoforest fires, after which it sets seed and its crustacean inhabitants disperse throughout the charred landscape.

In the southern Ailuropian wetlands, swampstalks are a common sight. These mid-sized grasses in the genus Palustrisaccharus take advantage of the fertile, non-seasonal environment prevalent in their range. Their relative Culicosaccharus, on the other hand, shares its territory with the can-grass and is subjected to similar nitrogen-poor soil conditions. The fact that very few plants thrive in this habitat means this genus receives a generous supply of direct sunlight. As a result, while it often starves for fixed nitrogen, simple carbohydrates are abundant in its tissues, giving it its common name - the sweetstalk. It secretes so much nectar that its isopod colony can't consume it all, attracting nectivorous mosquitoes. They take a quick drink and inadvertently brush against the plant's flowers, causing grains of pollen to stick to their faces. For the grass,  this provides the advantage of not needing to invest lots of protein towards the production of wind-carried pollen, allowing them to conserve precious nitrogen.

The remainder of the Saccharophytean species all belong to the subtribe Brevisaccharinae, a group characterized by one key departure from the ancestral skystalk life cycle. All members of this lineage are perennials, living up to a dozen years. This allows a variety of lifestyles unattainable to their short-lived relatives. For instance, the sharpstalk (Acusaccharus) grows extremely slowly, taking at minimum three full years to flower. Its calorie-packed tissues are guarded by sharp leaves not unlike those of the spiny-grasses found in Apterra's polar and montane regions. Its sister genus, Littorosaccharus, has similarly hardened blades. It, however, uses them to remain stable in its shoreline habitat, a biome where its annual cousins would find themselves blown over almost instantly. It lives on the tropical coasts of eastern Loxodia, and its tough-but-flexible stem gives the plant its common name - the windswept skystalk.

Further inland, Brevisaccharine skystalks find success in both temperate and arid regions. The squatstalk (Brevisaccharus) grows in Abelian pseudoforests. Its slow rate of growth permits it to survive in low-light conditions that sun-hungry annual forms would find intolerable. The fogstalk (Nebulosaccharus), on the other hand, withstands the blazing sunlight of the Ailuropian fog deserts. It has a corkscrew-shaped leaf structure, an instance of convergent evolution with its distant basket-grass relatives. Despite their long lives, both these genera are quite small; within this family, only the sodstalk is shorter. Contrary to the subtribe's name, though, not all perennial skystalks are so stunted; in fact, the group contains the tallest non-giant skystalks in the world.

The Splitstalk (Dendrosaccharus) is an even greater aberration from the Saccharophytoid norm. Once it reaches about three years of age, it begins to produce 2-10 tillers near the middle of its stem. These grow into additional stalks, potentially tripling the plant's overall size (and therefore its photosynthetic capacity). Their primary purpose, though, is to extend the grass's lifespan. Like all skystalks, this species flowers at the tip of its main culm, preventing all future growth. As such, even the perennial forms are death-blooming, dying after a handful of years once they've scattered their seeds across the ground. Splitstalks, though, continue growing for many more seasons, growing ever-bushier as branches grow upon branches, only dying when they collapse under their own weight.

In the Abelian subtropics, the genus Plumosaccharus grows peacefully in the dappled light beneath the basket-grass canopy. Its blades are broad and sagittate or cordate. Its foliage is exceptionally nutritious - even for a woodlouse-grass - and it serves as a vital food source for mid-sized browsers in its environment. Its lush appearance is its namesake; it is commonly referred to as the featherstalk.

The seastalk (Thalassosaccharus) is a beach-dweller like its windswept cousin, but it is far smaller than such forms. It is the only member of its subtribe to secondarily revert to an annual life cycle, living around six months on average. It grows at the very edge of the surf, sometimes even atop the algae, accompanied by a species of roly-poly that shares its salt- and poison-tolerant characteristics. 

The skystalks overall have taken a simple, conservative morphology and adapted it for life in nearly every conceivable habitat. The other branch of the woodlouse-grass family, on the other hand, was already quite derived and strange in appearance from its inception. Palm-grasses, while not nearly as species-rich as their sister clade, have quickly radiated into Apterra's most prevalent pseudotree group, dominating old-growth woodlands and supporting diverse understory communities. The Pseudodendroids, already alien with respect to their ancestral form, have branched into several genera of strange plants defined by their immense mass and novel growth pattern.

Palm-grasses are roughly divided into deciduous and evergreen varieties, though neither of these groups are strictly monophyletic. The evolution of palm-grasses over the past 900,000 years has been highly dependent on cycles of growth; while they originally relied on seasonal cues to trigger new whorls, many now have more advanced systems that permit a more efficient lifestyle. The ancestors of the palm-grass emerged from the tropics and became common in temperate regions due to their ability to conserve energy during the winter. To this day, this subfamily is still more prevalent at mid-latitudes than around the equator, but new survival strategies have allowed some to recolonize the rain-pseudoforests over the past few hundred millennia.

The pond-grass (Lacustridendron) is a somewhat basal member, continuing to live as its ancestors have for many thousands of years now. It grows on the shores of freshwater lakes and rivers, supporting colonies of arboreal isopods within its foliage. Its roots are tolerant to long periods of waterlogging, though the stems and leaves can't survive a flood. This leads to this genus being absent around ephemeral streams and highly seasonal lakes, preferring habitats where the water level remains constant. 

Further inland, feather-palms (Plumodendron) are among the most common temperate pseudotrees, forming open canopies that allow large volumes of sunlight to reach the ground below. This is due not only to their non-branching structure, but also to the fact that their leaves are heavily serrate, leaving large gaps that light can filter through. The purpose of this leaf shape is to prevent damage from storms; the blades are up to three meters long and a meter wide, meaning they'd be torn to pieces by heavy winds if their profiles weren't broken up by these openings. As each leaf is long-lived and very energy-intensive to grow, only 3-10 will be produced each season. Their size means that even this handful of fronds is more than enough to collect all the energy the plant needs. These leaves are a serious prize for browsers, but mature individuals are far out of reach - up to five meters at their crown. Younger plants, though, are at significant risk. For this reason, their leaves have a very different structure from their adult counterparts. The serrations of young feather-palm leaves are short, stiff, and sharp, deterring any would-be herbivores. At around their fifth year, they gradually begin to switch to the larger, softer leaves of their adult form.

The branching palm-grasses of Early Muricene Loxodia are also extant and widespread. Unlike the skystalks, one member of this group has secondarily regained the capacity to spread horizontally with surface-level stolons, producing thickets known as palm-brush (Bambusomimus). While these plants can expand rapidly across the ground, they grow only to about 3 meters at maximum, with most species reaching around half this height. Their cousin the canopy-palm (Pseudodendron), though, can be as tall as the largest feather-palms. These don't spread horizontally but are still capable of forming branches. It should be noted that all palm-grasses still have dormant genes responsible for the production of branching, spreading structures, whereas skystalks (aside from splitstalks) have lost several of these genes altogether.

The sand-palm (Aridodendron) grows in both hot and cold deserts. As a deciduous species, it drops its leaves not when cold weather arrives, but rather when the wet season ends. Unlike its cousins, though, it does not remain entirely dormant between growth cycles. Instead, it grows the subsequent segment of its trunk during the long dry periods. This allows it to be prepared to rapidly grow 20-40 leaves over the course of a week once the rain returns. These won't last longer than a few months, after which the plant will flower (inflorescences emerge from the previous year's axillary nodes) and commence building another section of stem.

Interestingly, the sand-palm's closest relative lives in the exact opposite environment; it is one of the few palms capable of surviving in the Loxodian rain-pseudoforests. This genus, Tropicodendron, is known as the Palm of Paradise. While it contains only one species, it is incredibly widespread in its range. It is also one of the tallest palm-grasses, growing to over seven meters. While its trunk is thin, its tissues are much denser than average, making it the largest plant on Apterra by mass. Its leaves are long but thin and flexible; unlike the feather-palm, they are not terribly sturdy, and the pseudotree often has to grow a new set after a particularly bad storm. While it lives in environments that are hospitable year-round, it is still technically a deciduous species. Unlike its cousins, though, it does not rely on seasonal signals to shed and regrow its leaves. Rather, it can trigger a new growth cycle under several circumstances. For instance, if its existing blades are showing signs of aging, it will drop them and grow a new segment before producing 30-50 new leaves. Similarly, major attacks by herbivores will trigger a new whorl, as will any other form of unexpected physical damage. It also does this before flowering, as the process requires lots of energy, so the plant is better off regenerating its canopy beforehand.

While the Palm of Paradise is the heaviest Apterran plant so far, the height record belongs to the pillar-palm (Stylodendron), which grows just marginally taller than its relative. It also has a very thick (but hollow and surprisingly lightweight) trunk, up to 60 centimeters in width. This is likely the maximum for palm-grasses, as pseudotrees don't possess secondary growth - that is, they don't grow in width year after year like true trees. Therefore, like most true palms, their diameter is constant throughout life. Similar to the feather-palms, this genus has large, serrate blades, with no more than 15 growing in a season. It distinguishes itself, though, by its evergreen foliage; while it ceases growing during the harsh north-Ailuropian wintertime, its leaves remain on the plant throughout the cold season, only dropping once growth resumes in the spring. 

Like the previous genus, the wax-palm (Polyphyllodendron) continues photosynthesizing all year round. It has adapted this trait to an even more extreme degree; its thick, waxy leaves may remain attached for up to five years. As each subsequent set of 10-20 blades is slightly larger than the last, once they reach their third year they begin to take on their characteristic "upside-down Christmas tree" shape. As time goes on, they may grow up to four meters. This genus is the dominant pseudotree in Apterra's coldest wooded ecosystems, but it has a only minor presence in temperate regions.

The sister clade to the wax-palms is the monotypic genus Mycodendron, commonly known as the Mycad. While quite short, it is tough and stocky, with dozens of two-meter fronds emerging from its diminutive trunk. These are pinnate, lined with hundreds of smaller leaflets. This is primarily an herbivore-deterrence strategy, as it takes more time and yields less energy to eat many tiny leaves than one large one. The Mycad's most notable adaptation, though, is found in its stem. While all woodlouse-grasses live in a constant state of war with parasitic molds, the Mycad has reached a truce with certain fungal species. These live in and on the Mycad's trunk and aid in staving off more destructive varieties, also serving as a secondary food source for the resident isopods. At least a dozen molds and mushrooms have independently joined this alliance, though only a single species can inhabit an individual plant - generally whichever was lucky enough to colonize it immediately after it sprouted. This is not a mycorrhizal system; hyphae do not connect one Mycad to another, but rather dedicate themselves to protecting the aboveground tissues of a single host plant. While this three-way symbiosis is still in its early days, big things are coming for the Mycads over the next few million years.