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Description
Sample of the diversity of Fuscophyta, a group of photosynthetic organisms from the planet Ea .

« We are able to think of nature as a mossy serenity only because we have done the hard work of taming the earth. We owe our kindly view of nature to an accumulation of technology and the efforts of civilization... We often forget this, and take both gardens and civilization for granted. » - Simon Sarris, Nature, Substack, 2020

« It's still not known how the association between Eucytobionts and methanogens first occurred. It seems analogous to the process of endosymbiosis by which oxygen-breathing bacteria and blue-green algae were incorporated by eukaryotic cells as mitochondria and chloroplasts, respectively. Apparently, though, the methanosome of Fuscophytes does not require to be exposed to oxygen, but to be isolated from it. (Methanosomes are in fact extracellular, but always located inside masses or bladders impermeable to air.)
The function of this association has long been a mystery. The most basal Fuscophytes have the appearance of black moss covered in blisters. It was once said that their photosynthesis is very far from the efficiency found in Hematophytes, to the point that cultured isolated cells are net producers of carbon dioxide. This is however a misunderstanding. Fuscophytes are in fact photoheterotrophs: they are very efficient in deriving energy from sunlight to survive, but unlike Hematophytes and Terran plants they cannot use it to incorporate (fix) inorganic carbon into organic macromolecules.
Methanogens reduce carbon dioxide to methane (CO2 + 4H2 → CH4 + 2H2O) by using a variety of metal complexes as electron donors, especially cuproproteins. The association may be an attempt by the Fuscophytes to "outsource" carbon fixation to the symbiotes, as methane is probably easier to assimilate for the hosts compared to carbon dioxide. The details of these chemical operations are still very poorly understood. Methanosomes are also involved with a variety of biosynthesis processes.
The main benefit for modern Fuscophytes, however, might not be metabolic at all. Last year's work by Huang & Van Rijk proposes that it might be mechanical. Fuscophytes completely lack most means of support available to other organisms, whether bones or shells or structural polysaccharides. But they do have methane. As the gas is much less dense than Ea's atmosphere, large bladders help keep the organism upright without expending resources into sturdy trunks or metabolically inactive shells.
The most primitive moss-like forms seem to use methanosomes only for their metabolic benefits, and the "bubbles" kept in tension by the inner gas pressure are probably meant only to increase the surface available for photosynthesis (the leaves of Fuscophytes are never very developed, probably because of relatively inefficient circulation). However, we can see a clear progression in the mechanic role of methane from bubblemoss, through blistertrees (which use large bladders to lighten their structure, and visibly sag when they are punctured), to land kelp (which uses a group of bladders at the top to keep itself upright with minimal solid support, effectively as kelp did in Earth's oceans), to rootblimps (which are effectively clusters of photosynthetic bladders floating about, dragging adhesive tendrils on the ground to gather mineral and organic matter).
The danger posed by methane-concentrating organisms has been known since the earliest years of human presence on Ea. In warm and humid conditions, any thunderstorm brings the danger of rootblimps being blown by the wind near a settlement and exploding from a lightning strike. Fuscophytes also almost never form pure forests outside of the wettest climates because wildfires strongly limit their population density.
It has not escaped our attention, however, the potential industrial application of Fuscophyte symbiosis. A culture of Melanomyxa foetida (Van Rijk, 162) can be grown under pressure and in absence of oxygen, producing large amounts of liquid hydrocarbons (up to 15 ml per kg of culture per day under ideal conditions), which can be fractionated and refined to produce an acceptable substitute of gasoline. Given the virtual absence of natural fossil fuels on Ea, this has obvious economic implications. Because of the inherent minimal size of nuclear reactors, the inconstancy of solar power, and the high cost of compact bacteries, liquid fuels remain a necessity for light aircraft and other such vehicles. Water drawn from the wetlands in the mid-course of the Shuang Jiang rivers – the most accessible source for our company – appears an adequate medium when purified of competing organisms and metal pollutants. »
– Update Briefing internal memo, InterChem, 190 AL

« Rootblimps were our worst nightmare in the early years. Every time wind blew from the north they'd come swarming from the jungle like spaceships or something. Blotting out the sun, throwing this brown shadow everywhere at full noon. They'd shadow the crops, they'd make it a pain to fly scouting drones, they'd drag their disgusting sticky roots around the camp – I swear I saw them drag away a rover for half a mile, once – and they'd make this creepy drumbeat noise when they bumped into each other. And every time there was a thunderstorm – when wet wind from the sea met cold wind from the Ninurtas, I suppose – well, then they really became trouble.
What do you get when you take a huge bag full of methane, very inflammable methane, connect it to the ground with a wet cable, and add lightning? Yeah. We had to shoot them down before they got too close to a pod or a camp. Thank God there aren't so many left these days. Let them burn in Hell, they'd enjoy it so much anyway. Have you heard those loons at Galapagos want to make them a protected species? I'll make you a protected species. I had to jump out of a burning rover when one of the damn things blew up. »
– Will Maddox, interview in Small Steps for Men: Earthborn Accounts of Ea's Early Years, Nisaba Press, 79 AL

« Rootblimp (Nepheloecia mirabilis; Fuscophyta : Cystopsida). [...] The name, literally meaning "cloud-dweller", is of course a misnomer, as the rootblimp generally remains in direct contact with the ground... The tendrils contain water-filled vessels with large ciliate cells that incorporate minerals at the ground level and actively carry them to the photosynthetic tissue in the floating bags. Considering the relative inefficiency of this method, it does not surprise that a rootblimp can take several decades to start casting spores, and more than two centuries to attain its full size. »
– fragment of encyclopedia, recovered from ruins in Toumai, circa 290 AL

Description
Sample of the diversity of Fuscophyta, a group of photosynthetic organisms from the planet Ea .

« We are able to think of nature as a mossy serenity only because we have done the hard work of taming the earth. We owe our kindly view of nature to an accumulation of technology and the efforts of civilization... We often forget this, and take both gardens and civilization for granted. » - Simon Sarris, Nature, Substack, 2020

« It's still not known how the association between Eucytobionts and methanogens first occurred. It seems analogous to the process of endosymbiosis by which oxygen-breathing bacteria and blue-green algae were incorporated by eukaryotic cells as mitochondria and chloroplasts, respectively. Apparently, though, the methanosome of Fuscophytes does not require to be exposed to oxygen, but to be isolated from it. (Methanosomes are in fact extracellular, but always located inside masses or bladders impermeable to air.)
The function of this association has long been a mystery. The most basal Fuscophytes have the appearance of black moss covered in blisters. It was once said that their photosynthesis is very far from the efficiency found in Hematophytes, to the point that cultured isolated cells are net producers of carbon dioxide. This is however a misunderstanding. Fuscophytes are in fact photoheterotrophs: they are very efficient in deriving energy from sunlight to survive, but unlike Hematophytes and Terran plants they cannot use it to incorporate (fix) inorganic carbon into organic macromolecules.
Methanogens reduce carbon dioxide to methane (CO2 + 4H2 → CH4 + 2H2O) by using a variety of metal complexes as electron donors, especially cuproproteins. The association may be an attempt by the Fuscophytes to "outsource" carbon fixation to the symbiotes, as methane is probably easier to assimilate for the hosts compared to carbon dioxide. The details of these chemical operations are still very poorly understood. Methanosomes are also involved with a variety of biosynthesis processes.
The main benefit for modern Fuscophytes, however, might not be metabolic at all. Last year's work by Huang & Van Rijk proposes that it might be mechanical. Fuscophytes completely lack most means of support available to other organisms, whether bones or shells or structural polysaccharides. But they do have methane. As the gas is much less dense than Ea's atmosphere, large bladders help keep the organism upright without expending resources into sturdy trunks or metabolically inactive shells.
The most primitive moss-like forms seem to use methanosomes only for their metabolic benefits, and the "bubbles" kept in tension by the inner gas pressure are probably meant only to increase the surface available for photosynthesis (the leaves of Fuscophytes are never very developed, probably because of relatively inefficient circulation). However, we can see a clear progression in the mechanic role of methane from bubblemoss, through blistertrees (which use large bladders to lighten their structure, and visibly sag when they are punctured), to land kelp (which uses a group of bladders at the top to keep itself upright with minimal solid support, effectively as kelp did in Earth's oceans), to rootblimps (which are effectively clusters of photosynthetic bladders floating about, dragging adhesive tendrils on the ground to gather mineral and organic matter).
The danger posed by methane-concentrating organisms has been known since the earliest years of human presence on Ea. In warm and humid conditions, any thunderstorm brings the danger of rootblimps being blown by the wind near a settlement and exploding from a lightning strike. Fuscophytes also almost never form pure forests outside of the wettest climates because wildfires strongly limit their population density.
It has not escaped our attention, however, the potential industrial application of Fuscophyte symbiosis. A culture of Melanomyxa foetida (Van Rijk, 162) can be grown under pressure and in absence of oxygen, producing large amounts of liquid hydrocarbons (up to 15 ml per kg of culture per day under ideal conditions), which can be fractionated and refined to produce an acceptable substitute of gasoline. Given the virtual absence of natural fossil fuels on Ea, this has obvious economic implications. Because of the inherent minimal size of nuclear reactors, the inconstancy of solar power, and the high cost of compact bacteries, liquid fuels remain a necessity for light aircraft and other such vehicles. Water drawn from the wetlands in the mid-course of the Shuang Jiang rivers – the most accessible source for our company – appears an adequate medium when purified of competing organisms and metal pollutants. »
– Update Briefing internal memo, InterChem, 190 AL

« Rootblimps were our worst nightmare in the early years. Every time wind blew from the north they'd come swarming from the jungle like spaceships or something. Blotting out the sun, throwing this brown shadow everywhere at full noon. They'd shadow the crops, they'd make it a pain to fly scouting drones, they'd drag their disgusting sticky roots around the camp – I swear I saw them drag away a rover for half a mile, once – and they'd make this creepy drumbeat noise when they bumped into each other. And every time there was a thunderstorm – when wet wind from the sea met cold wind from the Ninurtas, I suppose – well, then they really became trouble.
What do you get when you take a huge bag full of methane, very inflammable methane, connect it to the ground with a wet cable, and add lightning? Yeah. We had to shoot them down before they got too close to a pod or a camp. Thank God there aren't so many left these days. Let them burn in Hell, they'd enjoy it so much anyway. Have you heard those loons at Galapagos want to make them a protected species? I'll make you a protected species. I had to jump out of a burning rover when one of the damn things blew up. »
– Will Maddox, interview in Small Steps for Men: Earthborn Accounts of Ea's Early Years, Nisaba Press, 79 AL

« Rootblimp (Nepheloecia mirabilis; Fuscophyta : Cystopsida). [...] The name, literally meaning "cloud-dweller", is of course a misnomer, as the rootblimp generally remains in direct contact with the ground... The tendrils contain water-filled vessels with large ciliate cells that incorporate minerals at the ground level and actively carry them to the photosynthetic tissue in the floating bags. Considering the relative inefficiency of this method, it does not surprise that a rootblimp can take several decades to start casting spores, and more than two centuries to attain its full size. »
– fragment of encyclopedia, recovered from ruins in Toumai, circa 290 AL