Megacycadus

Kraty, Cariaway, Ni'eta

A rosette crown of stiff, large evergreen leaves topping a woody, stout trunk.

Megacycadus matures quickly. In their ideal environmental conditions in the Hotlands, plants can easily reach over 100 feet before maturation, and produce the giant seedpods known as cockleshells or nittyboats. Though Ni'eta are viewed as a starch crop through the canyon proper, these Hotland giants are protected, allowed to pursue their full life cycle for the purposes of producing nittyboats and healthy seed cycles.

Within the less-than-ideal conditions within the Canyon proper, Ni'eta may only reach 50 feet in height at maximum, with most reaching heights of 20 to 30 feet before "dawning" maturation.

Additionally, as a starch crop, many Ni'eta plants are often harvested between the 10 to 15 feet mark, in order to best capture the pith in its prime state.

However, a common deception in judging height is for much of the trunk to be buried underground. It is not uncommon for as much of five feet of the plant to exist buried in the loam, and immature plants especially can appear as crown rosettes seeming to "emerge" from the loam. Attempts to unroot the plant will quickly discover the full extent of its trunk and root structure. (Given these tendencies, most Birdfolk burn out unwanted growths, or commit to regular pruning of the crown rosette.)

Harvested sago is relatively flavorless, with spices and sweeteners added in the final cooking processes.

The Ni'eta nectar is sweet and bitter, used as a unique local flavor in some desserts, in some pickling processes, and as an ingredient in alcoholic fermentations.

The green and yellow soft seed shells are bitter in taste, and the mash is used as a digestive.

The poisonous orange aspects of the Ni'eta - the immature ripening form of the seeds, the male cone, and the diaspora (released seeds) - are said to be immensely bitter. The distilled poison is known for its sweet smell, but the bitter taste is said to lock and clench the muscles, resulting in death.

The crown rosette, nonedible bark, and the immature cone and metasporophylls are said to be fibrous, tough, and bitter, helping to deter burrowing insects and fauna animals from reaching the pith or devouring the primary photosynthesis receptors.

The leaves of the crown rosette range from bright green to drab, and the Ni'eta trunks are generally brown in color, with a dense , "scaly" bark similar to that of a pinecone.

The fertile strobilus, or cone, of male plants is reddish brown, ripening to orange in fertile seasons, referred to as a "dawning."

In female plants, the mature fertile megasporophylls are densely hairy, green in immature forms, and ripening to white in color during the dawning.

The seeds of the Ni'eta are initially green in color, but as they grow, pass through a poisonous phase. During this phase, the soft shells are bright orange in color, gradually moving into a reddish-brown as their external shells harden. Fully mature seedpods have reddish-brown hulls, and the diaspora of seeds within are orange and poisonous to ingest.

The male strobilus, in it's "dawning" fertile periods, has a strong fruity odor with which it attracts pollinators, which carry pollen to the female plants. (The cone, however, is poisonous to eat.)

In their "dawning" fertile periods, the female megasporophylls have a sweet odor due to the sticky sap that attracts pollinators, whose gift of pollen is caught within the hairy tendrils.

The trunk of the Ni'eta contains a starchy center, or pith, from which Sago can be extracted. Sago forms the starch foundation for the canyon diet, and is most commonly consumed as rolled balls or dumplings, as thin, pancake-like bread, and as a paste that is gelatinized by boiling (often with the addition of honey or nectar, and milk or water, to create a sweet dessert cake).

Sago is also an ingredient used in the production of wordfood, though the exact method is a highly guarded secret.

Sago must be harvested from pre-dawn, immature trees, as the process of dawning causes the Ni'eta to exhaust the starch reserves within the pith, hollowing the tree as the seeds come to maturity.

The hulls of the giant seedpods are known colloquially as "cockleshells," "kratyshells," "ni'eta /ni'eta boats / nittyboats," or "cariaway seeds," often washed downriver. Empty hulls, bouyant and sturdy (at least for a while), are numerous enough that they are often reclaimed as temporary kayaks by canyon travelers.

The interior of the cockleshell is filled with the "diaspora," the collective term for the hundreds of small, bright orange, poisonous seeds contained within the cockleshell; the hull cracks (either naturally or, more commonly, by the forces of the river), and the seeds are dispersed towards their rooting homes.

In their immature form, the orange-hulled cockleshells are highly poisonous (and may be harvested for that purpose), but the green and yellow-hulls of cockleshell seeds can be harvested for edible purposes by pounding, repeated washing, and cooking. The resulting seed mash is often used in poultices to treat sores and wounds, and eaten as a bitter digestive.

The Ni'eta nectar is sweet and bitter, and is used as a unique local flavor in desserts, some pickling processes, and in alcoholic fermentations.

The diaspora is also harvested for use in poisons, (in small doses) as a paralytic, or (in very, very, VERY small doses) for medicinal purposes.

The Megacycadus has a robust and swift maturation cycle, typically occurring as the plant reaches between 20 to 100 feet, depending on environmental factors (more ideal conditions lead to larger, more slowly maturing trees, while imperfect conditions force early maturation).

As the plant "dawns," or enters its fertile period (noted by the "ripening" of the male cone into an orange, and of the female megasporophylls into white), the plant begins to emit a fruity (male) or sweet (female) smell. After pollination, the female megasporophylls wither, replaced by the growing seedpods.

The seedpods, or cockleshells, enter their own maturation cycle, from green, to poisonous orange, to brown. As the seed matures, it draws starch reserves from the main tree - effectively hollowing it out - and the outer hull hardens. As the weight of the cockleshells eventually pull the hollowed tree down, the hardened hull serves to protect the diaspora, the hundreds of inner, orange seeds for their journey.

This hull either cracks naturally - on impact, or through additional drying once on the ground - releasing the seeds into the ground, or is often carried and broken on the river, dispersing the seeds into the canyon river to float downstream.

Diaspora is also harvested by Birdfolk, either for replanting purposes, or in the medicinal uses of poisons, paralytics, and medications.