Khôginaz Lichen

Khôghinaz Lichen is, like all lichen, a fungus that coexists with a bacteria. The fungus provides structure, surface area, and water to the bacteria which provides chemical energy in turn. The Khôghinaz Lichen is a crustose lichen, meaning it forms a thin, cracked layer on the surface of the stone.

The purple hued bacteria that lives within the Khôghinaz Lichen is specialized to turn water and stone into energy. Unlike typical lichen, in which phototrophic bacteria live mostly towards the top of the fungus where light is gathered, the bacteria in Khôghinaz Lichen live become more concentrated near the rock's surface. In the image below, one can see these bacteria (dark purple) above and between the rhizines (orange) which anchor the fungus' thin protective layer (light purple) to the rock via thick, intertwined sturctural hyphae (green). The bacteria secrete a chemical which is transported through diffuse hyphae (black) onto the rock's surface (gray).

The Khôghinaz Lichen have a unique mode of reproduction that puts them at the base of the food chain within the ecosystem in the caves. The fungus creates small lollipop-shaped fruiting bodies (podetia) that contain nutrients and hardy male and female spores. The Albino Cave Beetle, tiny insects native to the cave system, eat these fruiting bodies and ingest the spores, carrying them across the stones as they move. Within the beetles, the spores from multiple lichen intermingle and create a jelly like substance that is defecated by the beetle. The substance clings to the walls where it creates a new lichen. Many of the other insects, lizards, and fish which eat the beetles can also spread this substance. Note that the reproductive structures do not contain significant concentrations of the purple excretions, hence the beetles' white appearance and their inability to be used as dye.

Most crustose lichen grows incredibly slowly, at only 1-2 mm per year. However, Khôghinaz Lichen grows significantly faster, at up to 5 times this rate. This is due to the efficiency of the unknown reaction that the bacteria uses to break down the stone.

Khôghinaz Lichen only inhabits the caves at Koghînalgaz. It relies on the ecosystem there in order to thrive, and all attempts to transpant it elsewhere have failed. Some believe that water from the Crevice of Seething is seeping into the aquifer and is providing some kind of warped magical sustenance from the aftereffects of the Magical WMD used there.

The heavy carbonate content of the rocks is believed to provide many of the needed materials to allow the lichen to grow. However the carbonate alone would not sustain the lichen. Other trace materials within the rocks and the water at the cavern floors could contribute, but it is believed that the fungus has some kind of magical component.