Cabbage Shootroot

-| Feature | Details |+![Cabbage Shootroot](Cabbage Shootroot.png)+ +| Property | Details | | :--- | :--- | | **Species** | Shootroot cabbage | | **Attitude** | Passive |-| **Type** | Sessile |+| **Type** | Anchored | | **Category** | Starfish | | **Biome** | Plateaus, Shallows |  -![Cabbage Shootroot](Cabbage Shootroot.png)+The **Cabbage Shootroot** is a sessile lifeform that lives in a symbiotic relationship with the [[Aeroshell Sponge]].  -The **Cabbage Shootroot** is a sessile lifeform that lives in a symbiotic relationship with the [Aeroshell Sponge](Aeroshell_Sponge).-  ## Appearance   The Cabbage Shootroot appears purple and has a similar form to a mushroom. On top of the arms is the pink dotted center which holds the mouth.   ## Databank Entry   > **Shootroot cabbage**. A robust bottom-dwelling organism anatomically similar to a plastic starfish, or to an opened variety of Earth's extinct blastoids. > > **1. Animal anatomy** > > The cabbage shootroot's upward-facing mouth is surrounded by outstretched arms. These arms are hard, tightly grouped, partly calcified, and covered in a tough biopolymer characteristic of other shootroots (tentative name: polyproteovinyl). These arms produce the cabbage-leaf texture that gives the shootroot its name. > > **2. Seabed burrowing** > > A second set of arms uses ribbons of the same tough biopolymer to dig into the seabed, stirring up sediment and expanding cracks in rock. This is a difficult and metabolically expensive process, but it is a niche with little competition. > > **3. Symbiote kiss** > > The cabbage shootroot does not use its mouth to eat, or its hard leaflike arms to feed. These surfaces seem to be reserved for a symbiotic partner. The cabbage shootroot uses its mouth to transfer nutrients gathered by its roots to the symbiote, and to receive a trickle of food or chemistry in exchange. > > **4. Circular nerve cord** > > Like all shootroots, the cabbage shootroot is notable for its expression of a circular nerve cord. > > **Assessment:** do not sit. You may receive nutrients.   *Source: Scan a Cabbage Shootroot*   ## Gallery   ![Cabbage Shootroot with its symbiote in daylight hours](Cabbage Shootroot day.png) *Cabbage Shootroot with its symbiote in daylight hours*   ![The Aeroshell Sponge symbiote provides ample light at night](Cabbage Shootroot Night.png) *The Aeroshell Sponge symbiote provides ample light at night*   ![This specimin does not have a symbiote and is perhaps a juvenile](Cabage Shootroot Immature .png)-*This specimen does not have a symbiote and is perhaps a juvenile*+*This specimin does not have a symbiote and is perhaps a juvenile*