Shalebark

Shalebark
by User: KalynaAnne
Type	Plant
World of Origin	Roshar

Shalebark is a class of plants native to Roshar. Though it comes in many forms, it always looks like stone with retractable, often fanlike, tendrils . Shalebark grows wild in such diverse locations as the relatively barren Shattered Plains and the jungles growing on the Tai-na in the Reshi Sea. It is also used extensively in landscaping across Roshar.

Ecology

Shalebark often forms symbiotic relationships with fauna that is specifically adapted to each type of shalebark. For instance, plated stone, a blueish form of shalebark with yellow tendrils, has blue and yellow snails with flat shells that clean the shalebark and camouflage well when they pull into their shell. A knobby form of shalebark with fingerlike protrusions has tiny cremlings that blend in with the protrusions.

Lifespren are often found drifting around shalebark.

Cultivation

Shalebark is widely used in landscaping across Roshar. Gardeners shape it by filing it down and can paint it with a sap to encourage it to grow in particular directions. It is used to line paths and to form walls. In Kharbranth, there is a hedge maze where the hedges are formed of shalebark. It grows relatively slowly, so it can take years to cultivate large ridges.

Known Varieties

• Plated Stone - grows in thin round sections that stack similarly to plates in a cupboard. The stone-like part is a bluish color and it has yellow tendrils that grow from pores in the "rims" of the "plates".
• Hand shaped shalebark with finger-like protrusions growing from a central knob. This is found in the gardens in Kharbranth and growing wild in the chasms of the Shattered Plains.

• “Clusters of a bulbous variety of shalebark grew along the inside, bursting with a variety of bright colors. Oranges, reds, yellows and blues. Some outcroppings looked like heaps of clothing, with folds spread like fans, others grew out like horns. Most had tendril like threads that waved in the wind. ”

  —Description of shalebark on Roshone's Estate

• “To their right, a twisting length of yellow shalebark rose to waist height, like a railing. The stonelike plant was overgrown by small bunches of haspers with pearly shells, slowly opening and closing as they breathed.”

  —Shalebark cultivated by Elhokar's gardeners

• “[The king's Gallery of Maps] was shaped like a long loaf of Thaylen bread, and had large skylights in the ceiling, allowing the sun to shine down on handsome formations of shalebark. Dalinar passed one of these, pinks and vibrant greens and blues growing in a gnarled pattern as high as his shoulder.”

  —Shalebark growing inside a Soulcast building on the Shattered Plains

Notes

This page is probably complete!

This page contains most of the knowledge we have on the subject at this time.
It has yet to be reviewed.