Of bark and foliage

I’ve told the tale of peculiar blossoms and outlandish fungi whose appearance diverges so much from the green normality that they paint the picture of a foreign world within the world itself. So strangely they grow, in fact, that their common ancestry with their superficial counterparts is lost, eons away, begging to be revealed by a fortuitous future biologist. 

Despite this fantastic flora, not everything in the deep is so absurd to the surface dweller. There is a tree, a true tree, tall and proud, of bark and foliage growing out of the sun’s reach. Though it is similar in structure to an old mahogany of the surface, it displays a very distinct coloration and bears no fruit. The slim and pointy leaves are sparse and of a striking white. Yet they do not feel unusual to the touch and appear healthy in texture. While the main trunk is of the common earthy coloration, as the branches become thinner they tend to lose their tint. The tips of these branches almost seem translucent like amber. Nonetheless, do not be fooled by the tree’s sickly coloration, for in the absence of storms and parasites, it has grown into its best shape. Strong and beautifully symmetrical, vigorously projecting its offshoots to the ceiling far above. 

I do not, to this day, fully understand the inner workings of this biological impossibility, as this tree is entirely deprived of light and always has been. It seems likely that some sort of mutually beneficial relationship with some unknown micro-organism has changed this foreigner deeply, but further study will be necessary.

This well adapted outsider grows strongly in an upper level of the eastern Algific Rifts. This extremely unattainable location defies any explanation for its origin as no seed could have naturally reached such a remote location. Sadly to this day, I have heard of no other specimen of the sort and the ways of its reproductive cycle remains buried deep in its intricate biology.