Jennystones
From Changeling Venue
Contents |
Physical Description
Jennystones are a type of deciduous tree. These are broad-leaved trees that shed all their leaves during one season. Forests which are primarily composed of deciduous trees are called deciduous forests. The best type of soil for a healthy and nutritious growth of deciduous trees is referred to as podzol (also spelled podsol).
Jennystones can live 200 or more years. The largest tree I have observed in the Hedge I believe to be more than 400 years old, and it measures 9 meters (~ 32 feet) in circumference, it is 31 meters (~ 105 feet) tall with a crown spread of 48.1 meters (~ 158 feet). Breathtakingly beautiful and large.
Cultivation and Propagation
Both the shoot and root emerge from the pointed end of Jennystones. Roots usually begin to emerge by December. The root grows down into the soil during the winter. Shoot emergence typically occurs between the end of March and early June. In most non-irrigated sites, young seedlings rely on their deep root system for survival over the dry summer months. The long taproot is able to extract moisture from deep in the soil profile, and this helps the young seedling to continue to extract moisture from the soil even when the upper levels of the soil have been dried out. Jennystones can be picked directly from trees or collected off the ground. Jennystones collected from the ground usually have more insect damage than those picked directly from the tree. Also, Jennystones collected from the ground are more likely to have been damaged by heat or drying. Jennystones are ready to pick from trees when the acorn cap can be easily separated from the acorn without tearing the seed coat. Jennystones will generally be at least somewhat green when picked from trees, but they normally turn brown in storage. In a good year the Jennystone tree will have many flowers -- up to several thousand. With the right humidity, the right temperature, no late frost in the spring, and sufficient rainfall in the summer, tiny scale-covered Jennystones begin to grow. They will mature to become full grown and ripe Jennystones by late summer. The chances of one Jennystone making it to become a mature tree are very slim -- less than 1/10,000. That means that for every 10,000 Jennystones, only one will become a tree!
Properties of the Plant
Physical and Medical Properties
The bark of the Jennystone can be dried and used in medical preparations. Jennystone bark is also rich in tannin, and can be used by tanners for tanning leather. Oak galls were used for centuries as the main ingredient in manuscript ink, harvested at a specific time of year. However, while the Oak and the Jennystone trees share many properties, the potently fragrant Jennystone would make using such ink counterproductive.
Mystical Properties
Jennystones are described somewhat poetically as the rotten fangs from the mouth of Jenny Greenteeth, a folk legend. In truth, they’re just the hard seeds of the Jennystone tree, about as big as acorns and inedibly bitter. They’re an Oddment, though, because they stink. Jenny obviously didn’t take care of her teeth, and these reeking ones spilled from her mouth, as the story goes.
Jennystones exude a nauseating scent in a five yard diameter, so potent that they inflict a -1 dice pool penalty to anyone with a sense of smell unfortunate enough to be in the area.
Rumors About Jennystones
In Celtic mythology, the Oak is the tree of doors, believed to be a gateway between worlds, or a place where portals could be erected. The Jennystone tree is believed to be the other end or door where one is deposited into the Hedge from that journey.
~Free to add additional rumors here~
OOC Information
Jennystones is an Oddment that is explained in White Wolf's Changeling: The Lost book on page 224. I found a real world counterpart to Jennystone to be our Oak tree and the flavored text above I included based on the information we have about the real plant.
