Anima Rose
The Anima Rose was a variety of mage-bred plantlife that was developed in the Ghostlands region of Quel'Thalas by Velameestra Windrunner. It was based on the common rose, but was magically altered to thrive in low-light conditions through the consumption of anima.
Anima roses were the first foray into anima-based mage-breeding due to the flexibility and rapid-growth of roses, and techniques learned in the development of them were adapted to other plant-life. All varieties possessed a soft natural glow, though the color of anima roses was based on the purity of the anima it consumed. The most common variety was red, with later, specialized strains being white.
Biology
While at first glance anima roses heavily resembled the common rose they were created from, there were a number of extreme differences as a result of the mage-breeding process. The plants themselves did not possess chlorophyll, and instead the leaves and flowers of the plant had a translucent, ghostly quality that was subsumed by the color of the anima it consumed. Flourishing plants had a bright natural glow to them, while wilting plants became increasingly translucent until the petals eventually crumbled away into nothing.
Due to the lack of chlorophyll, and the eternal night-like conditions of the region they were created for, anima roses did not photosynthesize like a conventional plant. Its sustenance came entirely from anima it pulled from the earth or whatever its roots were attached to, and the stored anima could thusly be used by creatures that fed upon it. Anima roses could technically be parasitic in that they could be placed upon a living host, such as a treant, and could thus exist from the natural anima the creature supplied.
As a Reagent
Due to the anima these roses naturally stored, they were a valuable reagent for alchemical purposes. Once plucked, an anima rose could maintain its stores of anima for several days before the plant began to naturally wilt and the anima dispersed into the world.
