Roger Kranos
Flower Man
Name: Kranos Cactus (cultivated Dune-cactus), Latin designation: Carnegiea kraniea
Designation: Non Sentient
Homeworld: Aduba-3, cultivar only exists in Coruscant (stress tempered green house systems)
Language: None - N/a. It's a plant.
Average height of adults: 1 - 3 meter for fully mature (35+ years), but will normally not exceed 1 meter prior to harvest.
Skin color: Green
Hair color: Spines are pubescent, modified leaves, that range from yellow to red in color (often transparent). Flowers are pink and whorled.
Breathes: Type 1
Strengths: [2 minimum]
[+] Storage containers - Given the right conditions, the species is capable of storage of most fluid types (non acidic or damaging) without fully metabolizing. Along with this, the cactus, due to it's size, can hold a good deal of solution.
[+] Of little value: Beyond it's ability to transport stuff, no one really cares about it.
[+] Hardy: Like all cactus, this species is meant to survive in difficult circumstances.
[+] Spiky: For the desperate, this could be used as a weapon...
Weaknesses: [2 minimum]
[-] Plant: Serves very little general purpose, unless someone likes cacti in their office
[-] Slow Growing: Of the plant species, there are three types of photosynthesis. Cactus exhibit the slowest and thus, grow extremely slowly
[-] Difficult to handle: It's got spikes.
[-] Difficult reproduction: Coruscant isn't exactly booming with insect populations. Because of that, the process of pollination is pain staking and time sensitive based on the particular season and point of the life cycle.
[-] Short life span after bolt: Once death cycle is initiated, there are only four weeks that it will pass as a living cactus.
Distinctions:
-Rather large species of cactus, when grown to full maturity
-Unusual tolerance for poor water quality
-Unique, evolved, response to stress to allows extensive uptake of soil solution or surrounding water, which are then not metabolized by the Cactus.
-Seeds produced, after bolting, showed concentrated and organically compatible forms of drugs in solution
Average Lifespan: 175 years (though not standard for actually occurring). Begin growing flowers anywhere from 6 months to 5 years, admittedly sped up through biological and physiological selection during initial seedling selection and continuous work.
Races: None
Estimated Population: 500,000 seedlings continually propagated through CFFC holdings, far less number of flowering adults.
Diet: Water, soil, sunlight, drugs (optional)
Communication: N/a - it's a plant.
Culture: N/a - it's a plant
Technology level: N/a - it's a plant
General behavior: N/a - it's a plant
History: The Kranos cactus is a definitive example of the potential for sympatric and/or allopatric speciation, through taking advantage of a background genetic polymorphism, not normally expressed in typical conditions. The dune cactus, just like any other cactus, shows the distinction of temporally separating phases of photosynthesis to deal with environmental conditions. Because of the arid conditions, the plant typically fixes carbon during the night time (opening stomatas at night prevents loss of moisture within xylem or vascular tissue - think veins/arteries), and then keeps the stomatas closed during the day while it generates sugars from the carbon fixation. Most plants, designated C3 or C4 plants, do both at the same time. Cactus carry the moniker of being a CAM plant, named after the Crassulacean acid metabolism it exhibits, and separate fixing from production based on temperature and humidity, which is often easily delineated from night and day. However, in the desert environment, the plant continually uptakes and grows slowly, putting out seeds and flowers without truly experiencing stress for which it's adjusted. A CAM plant just doing CAM plant stuff.
Roger Kranos, drug dealer extraordinaire, saw this as a chance to manipulate nature to his will and needs, as he manipulates everyone else. First and foremost, he introduced a great deal of dune-cactus into the water system, through his green houses, of Coruscant. This dwindled the species profusely, causing most to die due to uptake and metabolizing of disruptive pollutants. After this process was complete, Kranos continued to propagate the cactus until numbers were restored, those being resistant to poor water quality. Once this occurred, he began with experimenting in stress testing the plant. Knowing that the cacti natural cycle relied on transition from night to day, he presented a system where the plant not only experienced continuous and long periods of day, but exorbitant levels of heat. The response was something quite magical...and exactly what the dealer needed. However, this didn't occur for all specimens and once again, he was forced to propagate the response by increasing seedlings over time.
First, the presentation of high stress results in a cessation of most biological activities, particularly growth and production of most sugars. The stress effectively causes the plant to go to bolt, or seed (this stress was only applied to flowering plants). It's at this point that over the course of only a day, the plant pulls all flowers into the pith and begins aggressive production of seeds (at least for a cactus). These seeds are the only structures that are impacted by the fluid held within the xylem, meaning that while the internal anatomy of the seed is unimpaired, the seed coat is strengthened and hydrated by the fluid within the vascular tissue in order to prevent desiccation in the future, after the cactus dies. Now, how does this actually help Kranos...
During the time that the cactus goes to bolt, it takes about 4 weeks for the cactus to actually go to full gourd, a hardening of the exterior and essential biological death. During this time, it swells with uptake of whatever fluids are within reach of the root systems. Meaning that ANY solution will find it's way into the xylem (including drugs dissolved into water). Along with this, the seed coat becomes a super concentrated form of whatever drug is in solution, leading to a more potent delivery system. It's similar to how mercury doesn't impact biological cycles but methyl-mercury does. It adds an organic component to the drug, changing how it reacts with the person consuming said drug, allowing it to accumulate more readily and persist - lengthening and strengthening the high, as it were.
Drugs within the xylem can be removed in multiple ways: cutting the cactus open and drinking the internal fluids. Taking the internal fluids out through the same process, distilling the water and retrieving crystallized drugs. The seeds also acts as concentrated delivery snacks that can be chewed or crunched. Chunks of the cactus can also be cooked and served similar to squash (preferably with onions and salt for flavor).
After the selection process was completed, to refine the species, the cactus were grown in only the purest of water forms. Laced water was only added to the cacti during the time of bolting, to help ensure full uptake of particular drug required at the time of ordering. Any shipment sent out must be within 4 weeks of Coruscant, or the integrity of the gourd will negatively impact the shipment process. And the CFFC, and CRC, doesn't stand for that. We aim to make the world a better place, one fix at a time. ©
Notable Player-Characters: None that I know of (though I would enjoy writing with a cactus pc)
Intent: The reasoning for this species is to create an organic container for drugs as well as a new, universal, delivery system for drugs (now called the Cactus Popper - The seeds of the cactus, after bolt). This will allow shipment of the drug, as well as smuggling, without being easily noticeable as a drug (cause it's just a plant, after all). The specific species of plant is only currently available in Flower Shops owned by the Coruscant Rotary Club and Coruscant Flower and Funeral Company. The distinction between this species (Carnegiea kraniea) and the common dune cactus is a company trade secret and only known by a few, though discovery is probable given the right circumstances.
