Name: Sanctusian Hivetrees- no scientific name for Order given Description: Sanctusian Hivetrees are not a single species, but an order of organisms, much like Pinales, Fagales, and the Wildtrees they are faintly related to. All Hivetrees have two-pronged, v-shaped leaves with either palmate or pinnate venation. Northern varieties of the species have thinner leaves with waxy coverings to protect from the cold and the wind. Like most plant life on Sanctus, all Hivetree leaves have a mint green or aqua hue to account for the dangerous strength of Sanctus’s distant blue star. Bark is often very smooth, and can vary in colouration from birch-white, to muddy red, to a deep brown hue. A sanctusian floran's sketches of two separate pollinator species of hivetrees, and the differences between them, their seeds and their flowers. Behavior: Hivetrees, when not reproducing, are stationary plants and do not move or think. However, the living, insectlike seeds they produce do have a very rudimentary intelligence. Some of these mobile seeds must pollinate themselves before planting themselves in a subtle place, while others can go to planting straight away. Tamability: Being a tree, it is easy to grow in captivity provided the person knows what they are doing. Where is it found?: Hivetrees are native to the Sanctusian continents Domum and Angius, as well as several islands nearby. They are found nowhere else unless a sample is brought off the surface. Rarity: Relatively easy to find on the two previously mentioned continents, but otherwise nonexistent. Diet/Method of gaining nutrients and energy: Hivetrees photosynthesize with their leaves, just like earth trees. Their living seeds have no mouths and can sometimes sustain themselves with small amounts of absorbed water and sunlight, but otherwise have to rely entirely on the lipid storage they emerge with to survive until they can plant themselves. Products: Some species of hivetrees have strong wood that may be worth harvesting. Others produce living seeds with exceptionally large bulbs of food storage that can be eaten by humans, and perhaps could one day be bred or modified to produce especially large varieties of domesticated “fruit.” The flowers of pollinator species are beautiful to the human eye and produce nectar that can be harvested by honeybees. Reproduction: Sanctusian Hivetrees get their name from the unusual seeds they produce. Most of the species belonging to this order has some extremely specific soil and location requirements to germinate, and also need a lot of space to grow. For this reason, the seeds they produce are mobile, like maple keys or poplar fluff, but taken a step further. The seeds produced by most Hivetrees are insectlike, with tiny wings, eyes, and occasionally legs to allow them to move about in the world. Many can test the soil for pH, and even have a rudimentary nervous system to control their motions. They are no more complicated than the common adult Luna moth, maybe even less so, and most depend entirely on lipid despots to survive. Some hivetree species are “pollinators” and others are “post-pollinators.” Pollinators have seeds that emerge before they are pollinated, and must seek out a flower from another tree to fertilize before it can find a place to plant itself. The flowers of pollinators appear more like long tubes large enough for a seed to crawl inside, and produce a scent repugnant to the true insects living on Sanctus’s surface. Post-pollinators, on the other hand, pollinate themselves like regular trees and only produce seeds after everything is fertilized. They rely on true insects to carry their pollen, with the exception of one species, which mimics the tube-flower of a pollinator tree in order to trick the seeds from this tree to carry the pollen for them. Flowers from this category are more conventional in appearance but can still vary widely. Because they depend on a large insect population to reproduce, they are more common in warmer climates, areas like southern Domum and most of Angus. Size: Varies depending on the species. Average height ranges from fifty to a hundred and fifty feet. Weight: Varies. Lifespan: Like earth trees, the average is around seventy, but some are several centuries old. However, one particular species by in a mountain range on Angus depends on Sanctus’s incredibly long seasonal rotations to reproduce, and only creates seeds twice every nine thousand years. Abilities: Unlike Wildtrees, many pollinator Hivetrees hold a symbiotic relationship with native insect life instead of needing to develop resistances and defences. This makes them more successful in warmer climates. They are also less vulnerable to invasive species because they are more difficult to exploit. Flaws: The wood of Hivetrees is easier to reach than Wildtrees, making them viable targets to mass logging. Other: One particular Hivetree species native to southwestern Domum produces a seed that is able to prolong its life by drinking water with a rudimentary digestive system. Perhaps one day, a species like this could evolve to create much more advanced, Floran-like plant organisms. Either after thousands of years, or with the help of genetic modification, much, much sooner...
