[Flora]-The Multi Red Liana

The Multi Red Liana

Description:

A photosynthetic herbaceous plant that is most common in forest and jungle environs. It can survive in saltwater swamps and arid savannah, though it becomes increasingly rarer in those habitats. It is a solitary creeper vine which normally extends to 1m in subdued light. Given a proper host such as the Yellow Heaven Tree, it can reach massive length and thickness in growth. The main body of the vine is a mottled multi-hued red and smooth. The spotted grey branches jut randomly from the main and can form complex vineways and canopies capable of supporting the weight of animals. This is dependent on conditions I.e when the main body is secured and the plant has access to enough sunlight. The root is rough in texture and striped with white across a mottled red coloration similar to that of the main body. The solid green leaves are compound, with 3 segments. Single instances of the compound leaves sprout at the ends of the spotted grey branches. The leaf segments are acuminate, rounded and terminating to a long point. The top of the leaves is smooth and the bottom waxy. The margin of the leaves is undulating and they display a palmate venous structure with curvature from the primary vein. The Multi Red Liana reproduces via suckers and basal shoots that propagate from the root. The plant displays tropism towards light and is non-sentient.

Use
Given the plant’s basal root propagation, light directed growth, and ability to form branch walkways, it is commonly used for these purposes by the arboreal sapients in its range of growth. Complex canopy bridges and supports formed by the direction of branch growth are a normal sight along the quantum slipstream migratory route, and speak of long periods of deliberate cultivation by the smol sapients. In this region, the Multi Red Liana is usually wrapped around the ubiquitous Yellow Heaven Tree. The species seem to have an unknown but productive symbiotic relationship, given the unusually strong growth of the Multi Red Liana in these situations.

Aside from usage as living architectural material, the Multi Red displays several medicinal and quantum properties – giving the smol folk all the more reason to cultivate it to such a degree. The solid green compound leaves are rubbed across the skin to promote diaphoresis. The induced sweating is commonly used as a cure-all and aid to the immense poison resistance displayed by the smol folk. Symbolic uses indicative of luck and health are common across all of the smol folk with a history of migration across the quantum slipsteam route. The spotted grey bark of the branch walkways and supports is carefully harvested, ground, and smoked as a vermicide. The smoke is remarkably efficacious against a wide selection of nematodes and helminths native to the area. The red bark of the main body of the Multi Red Liana is usually stripped off of specially cultivated plants rather than the architectural supports that twine around the trees. A wash of the smooth mottled red bark is used as a disinfectant. The rough white striped root is also generally cultivated rather than being harvested from the architectural liana. A tincture of the ground root can be made to extract a fine pinkish silt. The silt is used as a colorant in the dying of fiber. The distinctive light pink fibers produced are often reserved for small ritually used strips of fiber. The Fairy claim that the cloth gives some form of luck when worn. (Wearing an article of clothing dyed with the pinkish root colorant allows a re-roll of Endurance for the wearer, the best roll is used. Each strip has a single non-renewable charge and is expended no matter the result of the roll.). The paradoxical behavior of the Fairy makes the matter unclear, as they move between treating these strips of cloth as objects of high value to rubbish meant to be burned, often with only the bare minimum of ritual respect paid while burning the items. Attempts to correlate the treatment with the calendars in usage have failed to show statistical significance as of yet.