Arlen bloom

A pale dusky green lichen native to Paperweight that grows as groundcover on scree and the sides of any stones that are not completely covered by snowfall.

Growing as a soft, velvety carpet in its juvenile stage, the arlen bloom expands laterally at a slow rate, creeping across whatever landscape it can with the limited sources of nutrition and sunlight it has available. When it is ready to go to spore, the lichen grows thin, four-lobed structures that resemble flowers, which are typically crisp and fragile in the cold climate. When they reach full maturity, it releases its spores with a faint puff of mechanical motion, marking each of their 'flowers' with a splotch of deep purple.