Name: Ilari Starflower, aka Ilari
Size: Small
Region: Mountains
Lifespan: 1 year
Appearance
When clustered together, ilari starflowers look like a tide of white grass with waves of teal running through. Each individual plant grows up to a foot across and has long, narrow white spindles that jut out from a central mass, with the colour of these sharp leaves deepening to a dark teal further towards the centre. The ice-blue berries at the centre are also long and narrow, nestling amid the darkest leaves at the centre of the plant.
Behaviour
Habitat: Ilari starflowers are most often found year-round in cold, snowy regions such as mountain tops where they blend in to the winter background with only the darker teals of their central leaves to show them up. However, wildcrafters have helped the plant to migrate to warmer climates where they grow only during the winter months and shrivel up under the summer sun.
Special Information
Strengths/Abilities:
- Ilari is a hardy plant that can bear the most bitter of winters and survive snow fifteen feet deep.
- The leaves of the starflower are long and sharp, forming excellent protection against all manner of pests. They also make harvesting the ilari berries difficult and perilous enough that ilari farming is a specialist occupation and ilari farmers need special gloves.
Weaknesses:
- Though a tough little plant, ilari cannot stand much heat. They can survive in cold-to-mild climates but swiftly dry up and perish in temperatures over five degrees centigrade (41ºF).
Uses:
- The hard ilari berries were a popular dessert among the Anyeli for centuries, tasting both tart and sweet at the same time. Other cultures picked up the ilari in later years as the plant began to grow in warmer climates, though for these the dessert is seasonal. Ilari berries are best served with vanilla ice cream, though there are a variety of dishes available.
- Ilari tea is said to keep the chill of winter at bay. It can also, when two fresh berries are placed in a mug of steaming ilari tea along with chiolen blossoms and venom from a jade snake, speed recovery from hypothermia.
- There are a multitude of Anyeli legends and folklores surrounding the ilari starflower, chief among these being a tale of fated lovers which tells that, should a man present a starflower to his beloved on their wedding day, they will live a long and happy life together. For this reason, many Anyeli women carry a starflower as a bouquet on their wedding day, and traditionally the man should harvest it for himself.
- Another old wives' tale among the Anyeli is that starflowers can forecast the weather by the depth of the colour in their leaves. Should they be particularly dark, the weather in the coming months will be harsh, whereas lighter colours mean milder conditions. These forecasts are believed to be especially true if more than one patch of ilari displays the same depth of colour.
- Ilari powder (made from grinding down the flowers intact with berries), combined with ground scorpion tails, is used to make stardust, a low-class hallucinogen.
Creator: Emma
