Jack Sandrow
Writer, Character, Invasive Species
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To provide a species living in mutualism with the Keeser species
- Image Credit: Art by Raphael Lacoste, found on Mythgate
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Based on the symbiotic relationship between this ant species and this thorny acacia. See also: Keeser (SWRPC)
- Name: 'Thorny Startoucher', so named by the Keeser species when translating to Galactic Basic.
- Origins: Enthenium [canon]
- Other Locations: None
- Classification: Supermassive tree
- Average Growth Cycle: Unknown (estimated 1000-10 000 years)
- Viability: Unknown; exists in a Type I environment, appears to require nutrients, water, sunlight that a standard tree might require. The Keesers claim that it is incapable of existing on any other planet but this one.
- Description: Immense trees capable of supporting entire civilizations within its trunk, branches, thorns, and nodules. Produces a specific type of sap that the Keeser species requires for food.
- Average Height: 500 m - 5 km
- Average Length: 400 - 800 m wide at the base; branches can be dozens of meters thick even near the top
- Color: Dark brown bark, green leaves that grow more translucent near the top
- Nutritional Value: None
- Toxicity: None
- Other Effects: Its sap is a required food source for Keeser species; consumption of it is highly restricted to any non-Keeser species as a result.
- Distinctions: A porous trunk and branches, immense thorns and durable bark makes it highly defensible as a home; the Keeser species lives between the outside bark and the interior sapwood, living in symbiosis with the tree. Each tree usually houses its own colony.
- Symbiotic relationship with the Keeser species allows another layer of defense, besides its razor-sharp thorns and massive structure.
- Rapid production of sap and hollow structure provides very adequate protection and supplement for any Keesers beneath its bark.
- No natural defenses other than its thorns makes it potentially weak to any invaders when it is not hosting any colonies.
- Massive nutrient requirements make these trees few and far between; it is rare to find them closer than a few kilometers from each other.
The history of this species is relatively unknown (see also: Keeser reticence). It can be assumed that this species is extremely long-lived, and as such other conclusions can be drawn as well - this species has existed for potentially millions of years on this planet, and the Keesers as well along with it. The symbiotic relationship it has with the Keesers has existed for longer than known galactic history as a result, and possibly predates the Rakatan empire as well.
