Tangle Weed Family Report

Creature Family Name: Tangle Weed Family

General Locations:
Tangle Weed: Tallon IV (Tallon Overworld and Chozo Ruins) and Phaaze
Venom Weed: Tallon IV (Tallon Overworld and Chozo Ruins), Aether (Torvus Bog) and Dark Aether (Dark Torvus Bog and Sky Temple Grounds)

Species Status: Extant

The Tangle Weed and its close genetic relative, the Venom Weed, is a unique type of plant life that comes in a variety of forms across the known universe but otherwise shares the same basic biology and feeding characteristics; why it is that so many similar species exist on so many planets, however, has yet to be fully determined. The Tangle Weed is sentient to some degree as it will actively use its own body in order to gather food outside of sunlight, as it usually cannot grow in areas that have a lot of direct sunlight exposure. The brightly colored leaves of these plants are designed to attract prey items from afar, but what the prey do not realize until it is too late is that each Tangle Weed arm is also coated with microscopic barbs that ensnare and inject a paralyzing toxin in the prey item shortly after they land on the Tangle Weed. Once their prey has been immobilized, these plants will release digestive juices from their bodies and will wrap around the prey item, liquefying them into a form that they can suck up through small pores in their body. While the poison from the traditional Tangle Weed is strong enough to kill small creatures, it is nowhere near powerful enough to even harm larger creatures; as a result, the most that a patch of Tangle Weed can do to a larger target is weakly wrap it and slow their movement speed until they get out of the patch. If a patch of Tangle Weed is proving to be a problem, though, getting rid of them for a while is pretty easy as exposure to light or damage of any sort will cause the affected Tangle Weed arm and nearby members in the patch to retract back into the ground, enabling safe passage for a short period of time.

The Venom Weed, on the other hand, is a highly-dangerous mutant strain of the Tangle Weed that is readily distinguished not only by its extremely bright colors but its equally-intense toxins. Although they demonstrate the exact same behavior as Tangle Weeds, these creatures possess a powerful acidic toxin that can not only harm and kill larger creatures (which seems to be the reason why they develop such a strong toxin in the first place) but have the ability to actually corrode metal and damage energy shields, so much in fact that they will actively damage the armorsuit of anyone foolish enough to step in a patch of them. The fact that they too will wrap around and slow down anything that gets close to them can make them an actual threat, but they are thankfully not as dangerous as many of the more intelligent life forms that occupy their native planets, so they are a minor damaging nuisance at best that can be easily (though only temporarily) scared into retreat with a shot from a beam weapon.