Heart of the Jungle

In front of me there was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. It was as if all of the flowers and plants in existence tried to create an almost perfect replica of The Tree. Not as big as the Tree, and yet there was majesty in its size. The sheer amount of colors I have seen forming its trunk and branches made me realize how few colors I have seen in my life. There seemed to be almost an angelic glow to it. If not for the fact that we were surrounded by deadly vines, I think I would have fallen to my knees before it.

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And then, one of the mercenaries we hired for the expedition got a little too close to it when his hand suddenly burst green from underneath his sleeve. It turned into vines, not so different from the ones attacking us. And, similarly to them, it tried to strangle him, too.

— Expedition to the Jungle, anonymous journal

It is unknown why, but each of the Four great anomalies has some kind of a warped image of The Tree somewhere within its territory. There are Red trees of the Red Sea, the Stone Trees of the Grayness, the Junk idol tree of the Junkyard and then there is the Heart of the Jungle.   And as its name suggests, it embodies the main traits of this Great Anomaly: its beauty, its diversity, and its hatred towards humans.  

Appearance

The Heart of the Jungle, just like the trees of the other Great Anomalies, pretends to be The Tree in shape. Instead of being a single plant, the Heart manages to do it by being formed of thousands upon thousands of flowers and plants that grow all around the Jungle. It easily measures over 30 meters. Its branches spread out in a diameter of 100 meters. There is no real tree underneath its surface. All of its parts are interconnected in a giant web of xylem and phloem. It is hypothesized that this complex can survive either due to an enormous deposit of Nature Element hidden directly underneath it, or that the Heart takes vital energy and nutrients directly from the rest of the anomaly, and that its status reflects the rest of this land.   Even though most of the flowers that make it up would be aggressive towards humans and other animals, even from a distance, the plants that form the Heart seem calm, docile. The only exception are Look-At-Me flowers that try to lure humans closer to the not-Tree as soon as there is a clear line of sight between them and the intruder. There are enough of them on this plant that just looking in its direction might prove hard without at least one accidental glance at their pulsing petals.  

Hatred of humans, hatred of beasts

If a human or any other animal gets within 50 meters of its base or 20 meters of its branches, the Heart of the Jungle shows really how much it hates the things that aren't plants. Any animal body part that crosses the invisible line of 50 meters immediately starts to turn into plants, both on the macro-scale as well as on the microscopic scale, with all of the affected cells turning into plant cells. The change is immediate and painless, at least until the changed part doesn't get separated from the body. At that point, one can expect the same results as if the piece of flesh of the same size had been suddenly carved out of their body. What's more, the flesh turned into plants immediately turns against its old "owner", trying to strangle or choke them or break their limbs if that is impossible in its current state.   While the Heart hates the humans, it can also use its ability to protect itself from matter that doesn't come from animals. Should the not-Tree be attacked with any ranged weaponry, it will turn its ammunition into flowers, neutralizing any of its properties that could harm it anyway. And should it be attacked with the use of any Elements, it can just absorb them with the use of various plants that form it.   If attacked, all of the plants in the nearby area, no matter if normally deadly or not, will try to kill the ones that tried to harm the Heart of the Jungle.