Ecosystem Design Cave

 Iris Caves - Research 

Midway through the project i thought of creating a bio luminescent ecosystem as it is something i find rather interesting. In this post i will break each specimen into the research i did for it. 

The "Moon Mushroom" visually is a stereotypical mushroom, with a thin stalk, a skirt and a oval cap, however my idea for it was based on the mushroom Armillaria solidipes, not visually but for the fact a specimen of this fungi is the largest living creature in the word. The mushrooms are relatively small, however the fungal rooting system, also known as mycelia measures 5.5km across. Based on this i imagined a complex cave system completely overrun but this fungi that would sprout its mushroom in spacious dark spaces in these caves.

  

The "Orion Grapes" were based on several different things. The name obviously is after the constellation Orion, as these shiny dots would create this feel of a clear starry night inside of the cave. Ii imagine these shiny pebble sized fruits would be the way the plant would spread its seeds, the animals attracted to the light would consume its sweet juice and get covered in tiny seeds that would need only a moist high place to sprout on and repeat the cycle. 

Visually it was based on the Glow Worm, as this insectivore creature uses a bio luminescent chemical in order to attract moths and other insects in order to eat them.

"Orange Blister Caps" were based on the coprinellus micaceus, also known as the Glistening Ink-Caps. However this are parasitic fungi which made me go into an undetermined research of fungi that are parasites on other fungi. I haven't found any, however i thought it would be interesting to create specimens like that.

The "Ruby Polypore" is based on a whole group of parasitic fungi known as the polypore fungi or bracket mushrooms. The biggest visual inspirations were the blushing bracket (fistulina hepatica) and the beef-steak fungus (daedaleopsis confragosa) for their vibrant red coloration. 

The leaf shape of the "Blue Lord" was inspired by a UK native plant species called Lords and Ladies, the plant is quite pretty and quite poisonous, even deadly. I wanted to draw a simple bio luminescent plant as they do not exist in the real world. 

"Grond Anemone" was the occurrence of a misspelling sleepy artist that wanted to draw a very simplistic glowing ground lichen that would grow alongside stalagmites and stalactites. As the name suggests they were inspired on an Anemone as they would have a somewhat rigid but somewhat soft body that would slowly move with the breeze.