Sunstower

sunberries - sunberries are semi root hemiparasites that can latch their roots onto the roots of other plants and passively feed off its nutrients water or sugars with haustoriums. sunberries also utilise this in order to latch onto other sunberry root systems and share supplies to create successive colonies - colonies of vines usually coiling, climbing, twinning, or trailing around trees or tall objects and walls - sunberry vines will often have aerial rootlets sticking to the supporting pillars or objects on parts of the vine that are exposed to air, these rootlets will expand and form root systems where the plant senses dirt or water. - expansive shallow root systems that semi-attach to the root of other plants and steal/retain large amounts of nutrients - requires large amounts of exposure to sunlight for photosynthesis which causes the berries to only sprout in the summer and spring, making it a delicacy on hot days - sunberries are aggregate fruits where clusters of 1-8 berries grow and merge into one large berry - the berries grow in green due to high amounts of chlorophyll A and B during rapid growth in the spring - the berries are often shaded by large broad thick leaves with many stomata in order to have greater photosynthesis rates and protect the berries from uv rays/sunlight - the berries begin to ripen around the start of fall and months of cloudyness where the plant releases abscisic acid in response to the lack of sunlight and cold temperatures, causing the plant to stop producing chlorophyl in the berries. as the chlorophyl breaks down in the berries they may turn goldish-neonish orange from the chlorophyl breaking down into xanthophyl and the production of cartenoids - sunberry seeds are often tiny and 2-3 are found inside of each drupelet - sunberries are very lightweight and rich in potassium, magnesium, antioxidants, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin A, and vitamin B6 - sunberries are often dispersed by rainfall, streams, rivers, wind, and animals - sunberries often taste sweet at first from cartenoids and as the berry is chewed it may leave a tingling bittersweet taste due to xanthophylls, cartenoids, and antioxidants