Image Credit: Here
Name: Freesia
Homeworld: Mellaniphe
Development Thread: If Necessary
Average Measurements:
- Height: 25.146 cm
- Width: 10.1854 cm
- Weight: 170.097 g
Cultivation Requirements:
- Type I Atmosphere
- Tundra Soil
- Water
Strengths:
- Immunobooster - When properly processed, the leaves of the Freesia plant produce an oil that can be used as an Immuno-Booster to aid an individual's immune system in fighting diseases and virus. This is often utilized in those individuals whom are either suffering from an immunodeficiency or whom were born with a weak immune system.
- Frigid Growth - Due to the climate that the plant is found in, it is very accustomed to growing in more frigid and cold environments (though it would be unable to survive on Hoth), it can grow without much problems or need for intervention on the edge of Glacial ice caps. Likewise, under the proper conditions, it can grow in a climate controlled facility.
Weaknesses:
- Time based deficiency - Over time, if used continuously, the effects of the drug begin to waver. While it is safe to take it over short periods of times, a few standard weeks to a few standard months; up to a standard year, prolonged used diminishes the impact of the drug. Those whom use it constantly to treat simple colds or a flu, or whom use it for multiple years find that strangely enough their bodies and their immune system build up a tolerance to the drug to the point that it either takes higher and higher dosages to work, or it no longer effects their body at all.
- Rarity - The Freesia plant's growing habitat and its rarity in terms of growth; including its prolonged growth cycle, mean that the plant is relatively rare. Often only a small portion of the crop is taken and even then it can at times not be enough to meet the demand for the processed drug. So far attempts at cultivating it in climate controlled facilities have been successful, however the byproduct from this growth is a greatly reduced effectiveness of the drug.
Distinctions:
- Spider Web Growth Roots
- Mint Scent
- Reflective Properties - The leaves and stem of the plant have a reflective quality that reacts with the sun. What little sunlight that it has access to during the day is not only utilized to grow, it is also partially reflected off of the plant. This is to not only protect the plant from burning during the longer days of the summer months, it also aids in melting the snow pack around the plant to provide a supply of water.
Average Growth Cycle: 1-3 years by the Galactic Standard Calendar
Average Life:
- After Growth: 1-2 years by the Galactic Standard Calendar
- Leaf Shelf Life: 1-3 weeks by the Galactic Standard Calendar
Nutritional Value: No known nutritional value
History:
The Freesia plant is a recent discovery, due to its rarity and the simple fact that it grows so near to the glacial ice caps of the plant. It owes its survival of the cataclysm that wrought destruction upon much of the other flora on Mellaniphe due in part to its remote growth habitat and that it had for all intents and purposes remained so unknown for much of its history. The only reason it was found to have had any medicinal value of note was in part to botanist and scientist working together to catalog the myriad of Flora species that survived the war; at which point it was discovered to be able to aid in booting an individual's immune system.
In more recent years, due to the demand of the drug that it is processed into, and in response to the slow growth rate of the plant, the Quinata Healers have been attempting to cultivate the plant in climate controlled facilities. While this has met with some initial success, it has been found that the drug produced by the cultivated variety lack in the same effectiveness as the wild grown variety.
Intent:
Further the development of the lore, culture and history of Mellaniphe, with an intended additional development of storylines and development threads focused towards those companies of a medical nature.
