#symbiotic organism

[lichenaday]

Ramalina peruviana

Quipu lichen, Peruvian ribbon lichen

This fruticose lichen has many thin, flattened branches and tiny, isidiate branchlets growing out of lateral soredia and branch tips. The surface is pale gray-green interrupted by ellipsoidal or linear pseudocyphellae and punctiform soralia. It only rarely produces apothecia. R. peruviana grows on bark and occasionally rock in tropical and costal regions worldwide. So why is it named R. peruviana? Well, the type specimen used by Erik Acharius to describe the species was found in Peru. What's a type specimen, you may ask? Well when you describe a species, you need to have one specimen of that organism from which characteristics and features of the species description are drawn, and it needs to be stored in a collection where it can be accessed to compare characteristics and potentially DNA with future potential specimens. So even though this entire species grows all over the place and isn't only found in Peru, the name is a nod to the specimen which set the standard for the entire species name. It's pretty weird to think about using one individual as the standard when we know so much physical variation exists between members of the same species, right?

images: source | source

info: source | source | source

[falmerbrook]

“A teslore post about falmer! This should be interesting and-“

[arcadebroke]

link

[yiippeeekaley]

I'm starting to find it annoying how most non-comic versions of the symbiote are presented as "goo that makes you evil" and nothing more. Nine times out of ten, all the aspects that make the symbiote's dynamic with peter and eddie are completely gone because the writer of that iteration just wanted Spider-Man and Venom to fight for no reason other than easy hype points.

Usually all the symbiote does is amplify what's already in someone. It can't rewrite the very core of who they are.

All this nonsense also somehow leads to really dumb takes involving Peter and Eddie's characters. Stupid shit like "ooohh venom being a good guy makes no sense" or "ooohhh peter would never do something evil unless he's corrupted by the symbiote"

Buddy, this might be a shocker, but it's never that simple when one of these two is involved.

Also, in the main comics timeline, Venom and Eddie were never outright villains.

They strictly targeted Peter Parker due to their personal hatred of him. Whenever they do go for someone other than Peter Parker, they only go after irredeemable scumbags.

Even when the symbiote is drugged to be filled with an insatiable hunger for flesh, it still makes sure to only go after criminals

(from Venom: The Hunger)

So yeah. The take of "venom shouldn't be a good guy" is fucking stupid and wouldn't exist if there weren't so many iterations of the symbiote that portray it as an unthinking puddle of evil that corrupts everything.

[fagus-sylvatica-beech-hedge]

we/us pronouns strike again

[hessayy]

We'll start with sketches and see what happens from there :] I love drawing him, his lines and curves, emotions… fascinating* _____________

[fvaleraye]

adhd is making a design for a character and then immediately wanting to give it another pass on the same day. wanted a more organic look. also wanted to draw catastrophe with the hood down, bc we'd never drawn her without the hood up a lot more effort was put into this one bc it wasn't drawn past midnight asdflkjn so. reblogs appreciate asdflkjn

[rohirric-hunter]

Léonys, fresh back from fighting orcs and wolves and getting her ass handed to her by an entire wraith (which I have NOT done Unravelling the Thread yet on this character so she doesn't even know what that IS yet): Yeah, sure buddy. Incidentally, what do you know about the food chain? No, no, sit back down, I've had a rough week and lecturing someone for an hour about this will help me calm down

[betweenblackberrybranches]

:0 Mushrooms

What species of mushroom do you like

So they are technically mushrooms but maybe not eryone knows that but lichen

I know i cant do them justice like this tho so

[egg-n00dle]

Ethersea has such a cool setting to me as an aquatic ecologist. I've never seen science fiction lean into marine biology as its fantasy theme

[lichenaday]

Cladonia floerkeana

Devil's matchsticks, gritty British soldiers lichen, Florke's cup lichen

So what is the difference between a lichen and a mushroom? Afterall, some lichens like C. floerkeana kinda look like little bitty mushrooms. Well first, a mushroom isn't an organism--it's a fruiting body. It's a structure, often temporary, that produces spores, which are like itty bitty mushroom seeds. So a mushroom is to a fungus what an apple is to an apple tree! More or less. The "tree" part of the mushroom-producing fungi is the mycelium, which is usually sunk into the substrate where it lives and feeds. The red blobby tops on the podetial stalks you see on C. floerkeana are also fruiting bodies which produce spores! BUT the body--the mycelium of lichens--has formed a symbiotic relationship with a photosynthesizing partner: an algae and/or a cyanobacterial colony! Since the photosynthesizing partner needs to, well, photosynthesize, it needs access to sunlight, and so instead of sinking into the substrate, the mycelium builds a protective crust around the colony and (typically) hangs out on the surface! Not all lichens produce fruiting bodies (and perhaps none make fruiting bodies more beautiful than our pal C. floerkeana here), and it is important to remember that the fruiting bodies only produce fungal spores--not the photosynthetic partner. Does all this make sense? If not, please feel free to ask away! I am happy to attempt to untangle this one tiny mystery of the universe for you.

images: source | source | source | source

info: source

[sentientobjects]

i have object bio hcs u couldnt even Fathom

[mantisgodsdomain]

Considering their IRL counterparts, we think there's a very good chance that since Heart was Rad God's previous host, while she got transmitted to Mad Rat via bits of her in the heart tissue. There's not a whole lot else going on in that operation besides the heart transplant, after all, and we doubt that the doctor had any extra contamination around to potentially transmit her. We know that she says she lives in rats, specifically, but there's One Specific Protozoan she's based off of, and cats are the definitive host o f Toxoplasmosis Gondii.

Given the givens, it's entirely possible she simply doesn't present the same symptoms cross-species, and a symbiotic host that offers more benefits to her just... won't experience the same trip, especially since trying to feed your cat host to a cat doesn't really offer any benefit to either of you. With Heart, he's probably either asymptomatic or just only experiencing symptoms that don't particularly affect his day-to-day life, possibly in a way where he wouldn't have even known he was playing host to a parasite if it wasn't for the situation with Mad Rat.

Would it be weird for him to be... aware of that, postgame? To know that he's carrying a parasite with the potential to majorly fuck up any rats that might contract it? Is there a proper way to react to the knowledge that you're carrying a hallucinogenic parasite in you that'll cause major issues for any rat you might infect? Would he even, like... figure out the whole "asymptomic/mostly asymptomic carrier" thing before later? These are the questions we really need to ask.

[awarmbowlofhomemadesoup]

It's funny how Laois and Kabru are strangely clinically analytical about their special interests.

Like the time they talked about Faligon, when Kabru apologized for not being able to stop her, and Laois said, "That's okay; that means that's not where her vital organs are."

Then, he began drawing monster diagrams on the spot, dissecting what he knew of chimeras while Kabru observed him like a behaviorist behind a one-way glass window.

It's too bad we didn't see what their friendship is like at the end of the manga, but I wager it would be a year or less before their freak-on fully synchronizes like:

Laois: It's like we're in symbiotic mutualism.

Kabru: Like the Elven Lord of the Wall and the Stone Mason of 1624.

Laois, nodding: Like the time you explained to me about Chilchuck and what if he doesn't have layers.

Kabru: Like honeyguides and tall men.

Marcille: What the heck are you two even talking about?

Kabru: Laois just told me he likes being my friend :)