Roger Kranos
Flower Man
Name: Sharps Hawthorn (Crataegus clysterem)
Designation: Non sentient
Homeworld: Selvaris
Language: It's a tree
Average height of adults: 10 meters
Skin color: Bark is shallowly furrowed and light brown
Hair color: Thorns (modified branches) are red when juvenile and turn brown in older age, which is indeterminate.
Breathes: Type 1
Strengths: [2 minimum]
[+] Produces Sharps Syrup: Only known species to produce this substance at manufacturing levels
[+] Resilient: Despite it's tie to swamps, once it reaches maturity, it can be moved to cultivated conditions given appropriate replication of bog conditions.
[+] Rooting hormones: Can be separated from boil and used to help grow cultivars in bog conditions, given environmental controls.
Weaknesses: [2 minimum]
[-] Selvaris: It's stuck specifically on Selvaris as a native plant, tied to the vong forming process. There are no other conditions or planets where it would naturally thrive, despite it's allelopathy.
[-] Tree: Requires time to develop. Just like any other tree.
[-] Subject to all the weaknesses a normal tree would have. Cutting down, fire, herbicide, stressed growth, etc.
Distinctions:
-Leaves are doubly serrated
-Leaves are acutely tapered towards the base and grow nearly absent peduncles
-Bud scars shift during development of bark, giving the appearance of opposite leaves. However, the leaves are alternately formed, appearing whorled in spring time.
-Bark is unusable for timber or manufacturing processes
-Several variants are present in the species, clysterem, but due to hybridization, they are nearly indistinguishable and serve no alternate purposes.
Average Lifespan: Indeterminate, fast growing tree due to lack of herbaceous layer from allelopathy. Can grow over 200 years given appropriate circumstances.
Races: Variants are present but only serve to allow arguments between aged botanists, looking to assert themselves in the Crataegus field. The variant, Crataegus clysterem var. kranos, has a distinct frost blue flower at the ending of the growing season that reveals a vibrant white washed stigma with a red style. The Crateagus clysterem var. bane appears almost exactly the same, but develops an entirely red stamen 4 days before wilt. The Crataegus clysterem var. nergal develops in the same manner as the var. bane, but reveals just a tad bit whitey hue stamen, more closely resembling pink. The Crataegus clysterem var. may is arguably the most attractive of the variants, developing a flower of blanched ivory with a pink pistil and violet stamens. However, because of the weakened peduncle and preferred flavor for the vonduun crab, this shrub at the base of the tree is rarely seen in flowering stages. And finally, the Crataegus clysterem var. hades is rarely seen flowering but forms a darker hue of flower, closer to black, that wilts two weeks into the growing season.
None of these variants serve any distinction, chemically or biologically, beyond differences in phenotypic expression with no known genotypic origin.
Estimated Population: Common throughout vong formed locations of Selvaris, giving it a substantial population that's constantly expanding.
Diet: Plant thrives in low nutrient locations, such as bogs, and survives on storage of oxygen in aerynchyma. Otherwise, standard nutrients from soil (nitrogen, phosphate, carbonate, etc).
Communication: As the wind blows (no communication known)
Culture: The Sharps Hawthorn is allelopathic in that it emits toxins into the soil from the rhizomes. This often produces large monoculture groves of dog hair hawthorn, spreading out through autogenic succession and use of secondary metabolites.
Technology level: It's a tree.
General behavior: It's a tree.
History: The Sharps Hawthorn has always grown on Selvaris. However, it hasn't thrived until recently as it prefers low oxygen and low nutrient conditions. The reason this has changed is the increased in bog, used for vonduun crab harvesting, the results from the vongforming of the planet. The conditions convert pyruvate into an acidic nutrient, allowing conversion of parenchyma into aerenchyma, which in turns allows storage of gases and transport into waterlogged root systems. Along with this, the low oxygen produces multiple secondary metabolites. The first and foremost being the allelopathic substance that enters the soil and prevents growth of additional floating aquatic vegetation, algae, or rooted submerged vegetation. This allows the expanse of the tree population to become immense within a short time, pronounced by an expansion of a bog system into a forested wetland.
The more important secondary metabolite is a sedative produced in the modified and pronounced branches, commonly called thorns. When young, typically towards the base of the trunk in the form of a shrub, the thorns are hollow and filled with a powerful sedative metabolite. Towards the base, against the branch, a fruiting body is contained within the cork of the bark that stores the seeds for propagation. As an animal, or human, brushes against the branch, the thorn breaks off due to a weakened dimple in the base of the thorn. Given the sharpness of the thorn, the entree is relatively unknown, enhanced by an instantaneous dose of anesthesia. As the individual walks away from the original tree, the sedative causes extreme lethargy and eventually, the individual will fall asleep in a wave of euphoria. This is an evolved substance that allows propagation of seedlings without the need for consumption or wind dispersal, which may be difficult in low land valley emergent wetlands and bogs. It also produces a slow autogenic succession of tree growth resembling the crawl of dog hair.
As the dose continues to enter the skin and blood system, the system naturally and rather quickly pushes the thorn out, preventing death. However, should the person fall asleep and wedge the thorn further into the skin, or attempt to remove it, they can accidentally cause death or acute paralysis. The effects of the Sharps Syrup includes drowsiness, sudden and rapid euphoria, occasional hallucinations, and potential death/paralysis. Currently, the only group with the knowledge and experience to extract the syrup from the plant are certain members of the Coruscant Flower and Funeral Company. Boiling of the thorns allows for extraction of both the syrup and a rooting hormone that, while not intoxicating, will diminish the impact of the syrup on those who partake. A specific temperature is required in order to prevent denaturation of the syrup, which has been found to be relatively easy given just minor influxes in temperature.
Notable Player-Characters: Lol, someone please do this (none as of yet).
Intent: To provide a new form of drug on the market, somewhere between a sedative at low doses to a fatal poison with prolonged exposures. The drug is called Sharps Syrup (C). Of course, the high does cannot be used against a PC without their permission.
