Primitive Beckon
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| Classification | |
|---|---|
| Type | Beckon |
| Structure | Nexus |
| Class | Nexus |
| Characteristics | |
| Height | 4–50 m |
| Tendrils | 4–12 |
| Body temperature | Follows surroundings (cold-blooded) |
| First recorded | 2020 |
The Primitive Beckon is a cold-blooded species of Beckon, and the first species recorded on Earth. It appeared near the equator in 2020. Primitive Beckons grow best in warm conditions and can be destroyed with hand tools. By the mid-2020s they had been replaced in the Americas and Europe by the Adapted Beckon.
Description
Primitive Beckons stand 4 to 50 metres tall, with a black stem, 4 to 12 tendrils and a green bulb at the crown. Specimens growing in richer soil carry more tendrils. The trunk is filled with water-filled cells around a flexible spine, and is heavy, wet and soft.
The infested soil around them gives off a strong smell of nitrogenous waste, which keeps people and animals away.
Physiology
The body temperature of a Primitive Beckon follows that of its surroundings. It grows by luxsynthesis, which turns light and soil into biomass and needs both adequate light and warm soil. Its cells are filled with water and its blood carries no antifreeze, and frost kills it by freezing them. Growth slows in cold weather and surges in spring.
Primitive Beckons make sulfur hexafluoride in gas glands in their outer tissue and release it into the air, more by day than at night, in step with luxsynthesis. They do not store the gas, and they do not use it to put out fires; a Primitive Beckon set alight burns within minutes.
History
The first Primitive Beckons appeared near the equator in 2020, and in 2021 spread through South America and West Africa. The early infestation stayed largely in the tropics, with scattered Beckons on frost-free coasts further north. Sulfur hexafluoride emitted by Primitive Beckons at sites in the south of the European Federation in 2020 led to the sulfur hexafluoride case, through which the organisms became public record.
In 2020 and 2021 the ease of clearing them with axes and saws was widely reported as a sign that the infestation could be contained. In 2027, analysis of signals intercepted from the Dispatcher network showed that this phase had been a controlled test of how people and governments respond.
By the mid-2020s Primitive Beckons had been declared extinct in the Americas and Europe.