Droppy Flowers

Droppy flowers happens due to Dryads' unique physiology. Being tree people, Dryads are sensitive both to plant and animal hormones, one of these being ethylene. This hormone has many functions, including stimulating fruit to ripen and signaling when it's time to shed leaves.

When a Dryad is flowering, they must be careful about what they eat. Certain fruits, such as apples and bananas, secrete ethylene. When a Dryad eats these, their body absorbs the ethylene, causing a spike. The hormone signals the Dryad's body to drop all their flowers at once.

Droppy flowers refers to a Dryad shedding all their flowers at once due to a spike in a certain plant hormone. In severe cases, the leaves may fall out, too, leading to what can only be described as Dryad pattern baldness.

While it is not dangerous in the moment, it is often embarrassing and can even be a detriment to a Dryad's livelihood. Many dryads make a living off of their fruit, and if they get droppy flowers, they don't fruit for that month. Even one month without fruiting can put a Dryad in dire straits, so many take measures to prevent this from happening.

Depending on what stage of fruiting they are in, though, a Dryad might actually want to experience droppy flowers. If they are past the flowering stage and have young fruit on their head branches, the surge in ethylene causes the fruit to ripen faster. As mentioned above, ethylene has many different functions, not all of them undesirable.

To avoid droppy flowers, Dryads are extremely careful about the foods they consume around the Cherry Sun, particularly plant-based ones. Fruits that secrete ethylene, such as apples or bananas, are avoided altogether, and other kinds of fruits and vegetables are eaten only in small amounts. Some dryads even go as far as to avoid plant-based food altogether and adhere to a carnivore diet.