vissewort

Vissealvia Saprsi, Vissealvia Splenden Saprsi,Vissealvia Vinea vissewort
Also known as Guard Moss, Guard Grass, Vokte Tre, Vokte Jorde, Monstro Agre.

Introduction
Vissewort is an early warning device with a difference.

Imagine a blade of grass that detects the hue of those around it. It will always try to become one shade lighter than the darkest it can detect. Eventually, it or others further away, become the saturated level that the species can accomplish, the lightest it can possibly be and this is known as the steady or common state.
If one blade were to turn dark then all those around it would follow suit but of course, taking on the one shade lighter, response.
Lets say for example our dominant colour is black (not that visse are commonly found as a black and white species, generally being green but for explanation let me continue), our steady or common state would be the opposite, that is, the lightest of the dominant, which in this case is, black. Our field of 'visse blades' would thus be white. We then crush a blade in the centre of the field and it turns its dominant colour, black. Those around, like a pond ripple, react and take on one shade lighter. We would be left with a dark splot in the white field that was black at its centre but slowly faded to shades of greys then eventually white again the further out it was from the crushed or black blade.
This is vissewort Vissealvia Saprsi in it most basic form. A hardy plant that grows in various ways, with various hues. It is often planted and used as a silent guard or detector. Some very old plants of this species have been found. They grow in a prolific manner and can be found as large as several farm blocks.
The Vissealvia Splenden Saprsi however is a far more colourful sub species.

Habitat
Numerous species of Visse exist and have been found in both warm and cold climates, They grow pretty much anywhere, open fields where they proliferate like a covering carpet grass, river banks as a more reed like species and even in caverns as a stubby moss. Cavern species often exhibit bioluminescence qualities.

Description
The common Visse plant is a grass like moss. Underground it consists of a number of interconnecting bulbs or rhizome nodes. Each node or bulb sprouts a number of single stems above ground, that terminate in a small bud. The stems and bud vary in colour but are generally a shade, of that particular species dominant hue.
Stems vary in height, from small moss like strands to the bull rush size reeds, seen along some river banks. It has been known to grow in great fields but has also been found in small clumps. The smaller clumped species are generally considered to have a wider and more vibrant colour diversity.

One or Many
It is undecided among the vissealists and alchemists of today as to whether a field of Visse is a colony of individual plants that share resources or a single organism that has many, genetically identical offshoots. Similar traits can be recognised among the colonies of Pando trees (Aspen) or Sequioa. But certainly none other, so far studied, plant organisms show the communication like activities, that Visse display.

Communication
The basis of vine communication is believed to be electro-chemical. It can feel vibrations and sense minute chemical changes. It is thought that Vissealists use the electro-chemical changes in their bodies brought on by emotions, and a series of vibrations to control or send information into the vines.
The primary users of vissewort, Vissealists keep to themselves and are not forth coming with information on their trade. What information there is on the communicative properties of the vine can be found under Vissealists.

Bud
The Visse plant does not have a flower but does support a small bud at the very tip of its single stem. Many think the bud is the sexual organ of the plant. In spawning season minute droplets form on the very tip of the bud. The swaying breeze moves the stems in waves and these droplets are knocked from one stem to another or blown free and carried on the wind until they come in contact with another. The great alchemist Zifril is often seen wearing his visse coat. Its dark colour was made by walking thru a field of Visse at spawning time. The bud droplets adhering and soaking into the leather dieing it permanently.

Stem
The stem is where all the visible action happens within a Visse plant.
The upper stems of the Visse plant are vascular, tubulous like celery. The stem consists of a bundle of minor and major tubes, xylem and phloem supported and interconnected by a pith. These vascular tubes transport water and plant food. The pith is a storage area for the water and starch the plant needs to grow and provides, along with the bundle, structural support. At this point the plant differs from most others in that it has a further series of tubes that surround the bundle. These tubes, chromalem are close to the outer cortex of the stem and can be visibly seen thru the opaque skin, epedermis. The inner pith is mostly a dark dye of the dominant colour, it is surrounded by the thicker vascular bundle and is not therefore visible. It is thought that this is in fact the reproductive system of the plant. This inner or gametes pith contain male sperm in one plant and female eggs in another.

Bulb
The stems travel the length of the vertical section of the plant ending at the bottom (underground) in a bulb. Bulbs are interconnected with other plants bulbs, via fleshy root stems (rhizomes) forming a living network. Inside the bulb, these ganglia, are clusters of semi intelligent cells. They can process basic 'commands' as it were. Clusters of cells form around sacs chromasacs of coloured dye. The sacs form at the bottom of the chromalem tubes. It is not known exactly how these commands are transported from one bulb to another or indeed how the commands are processed but the end result is that the sacs are compressed or relaxed and thus pump dye up and down the stems. The amount or volume of dye in the stem, thus determines the shade.
The bulb also receives information from the photosensitive spots on its stems and can locally use this to stimulate the chromasacs.

Epidermis
The Visse stems skin, is also unique to the plant world. It contains many iridophores that are controlled via the proteins flowing in the phloem. Iridophores are a reflective type cell that can be used to completely reflect surrounding light, giving off metallic, golds, silvers, greens and blues for example. Their refelctivness can vary dramatically, from complete, thus hiding the chromalem colours, to transparent, allowing the chromalem colour to show clearly through. The skin also retains photosensitive spots or fargeplasts that can detect the brightness of surrounding stems.

Trigger
When the stem is crushed, the water, starch and dye within the gametes pith mix and overcome the various chromalem and iridophore colouring, producing a very dark mush. Without any other external stimulus the surrounding plants default to the Chameleon Response.

Chameleon Response
Basic
Fargeplasts spots, along the outer skin, activate on the darkest pigment or shade of visse that surround it. A signal (system unknown) is released that excites the chromasacs into action. It attempts to find a shade just slightly lighter than the one detected.
Splenden
Numerous hues, shades, florescence and reflectivity are found in these exotic species. It also claims the most 'intelligence'. That is, the Visse's ability to interpret and send signals along its rhizome network, such that chromasacs and iridophores of a specific remote plant can be excited. Great fields that extend as far as the eye can see can change colour and shade in little under 200 counts. That is of course if such vast plants were cultivated.
Expert visse keepers known as vissealists, can create magnificent patterns of a very intricate and colourful nature. These fields come at a price tho for the species is delicate and requires a mastery of visse knowledge and learning to tend and nurture the expansive plant properly. A single cut through a rhizome for example can segregate that plant from others, breaking the 'line of communication'.

Other uses
While its beyond the scope of this article to go into the depths of the visse as a commodity we will mention some aspects that may be important.
Medical
Not much study has been done on the chemical or herbal aspects of the plant. Stories of its use as a poison and as a herbal medicine are equally heard. One must remain careful as alchemists suspect it depends on the species, the part of the plant and how its prepared.
Dye
Its use as a dye to colour anything from clothing material, to wood and even metals is known. Once again tho it requires careful culling of the bulbs and intricate extraction methods to remove the dye and create a suitable solution.

Story example
His mouth dry, Ledoik stood at the battlements peering into the moonless gloom and fields surrounding the castle. A misty rain collected upon his head , ran down his cheek formed into a droplet to be captured by his ravenous and desperate tongue. Out there, somewhere, the Pressagroths waited to attack. But where? So many places, so many weaknesses in these old castle walls and so few men to patrol and defend. Ledoik was anxious, indeed he should be, the Pressagroths were no enemy to be taken lightly. Any minute now the hoard would rampage towards these walls, how far was it? A hundred strides from the forest edge to the walls? Only a lush field of green lay between the bricks he now stood on and the thick vegetation of forest. Ledoik let his gaze wander towards his commander. Even tho the weight of battle and certain death must bear upon his shoulders the man seemed at ease and did not focus on the forest edge but the fields themselves. The commander noticed Ledoik's gaze and yet did not rebuke him for drifting from his post but smiled and said 'fear not young Ledoik, the visse will show us from where and when the Pressagroths attack' .
At that moment the drizzle eased, and Ledoik could see as plain as day a blight upon the fields, near the edge of the forest. Like a rock dropped into a pond, a wave of lighter shades of green emanated from the blights centre. Growing from the forest, where it was darkest, the field got lighter and lighter the further away it was from the blight. It was clear enough. The commander barked words, organising the archers, the few catapults they had and the giant rockslings to this side of the battlements. He motioned them to aim towards the blight, the dark patch near the fields edge. Then Ledoik's face drained, he saw them. A dark mass was moving from the forest. It was hard to be sure but there was something upon the blight. And the waves of lighter shades of green pulsated along the fields like ripples in a pond. The lighter shades, the ones closest to the walls were now getting increasingly darker. That blight was clearly indicating from whence the hoard was coming.
The commander yelled an order and the projectiles whistled their way towards the blight.