Valoris Wood
Valoris Onod Ancien is a Treant who is a shepard of the Valoris Wood. The wood covers over an old broken dike and takes up approximately twenty five square miles of forested area. The southern edge of the Valoris Wood is the Jistille Estates with the keep two miles south from the forest edge. The northern edge of the Wood is Dragon Fen. There is a new road through the Wood that leads from Dragon Fen down to join the Moss Road in the village of Harielle in Jistille.
The Valoris Wood is an old growth forest - an old undisturbed forest with varying tree heights and ages, canopy openings allowing for herbaceous plant growth, and ground full of pits and mounds due to natural decay and falling of trees. It is full of tall loblolly pines, sweetgum, elm, persimmon, and multiple types of massive water-adept oaks, as well as patches of evergreens in the underbrush, but is mostly dominated by bald cypress and swamp tupelo. While often thought of as just swamp, a large portion of Valoris Wood is actually bottomland with periodic flooding. Further in the woods, wet hammocks can be found, slightly elevated areas with hardwood trees surrounded by wetlands too wet to support them. These areas cannot tolerate fires, but are often sought for development due to their elevation.
As an old growth forest, the Valoris Wood has an extreme amount of biodiversity. In addition to common forest animals such as birds, large cats, deer, feral hogs, and canines, the consistent flooding provides habitat for turtles, snakes, fish, alligators, and gar. The summer months are wet and hot while the winters are mild with occasional snowfall.
Other notable plants: Poison ivy/oak/sumac, jack-o'lantern mushroom, bogmoss, mistletoe, wax mallow, moonflower, holly, greenbriar, fern, oleander, mosses, lichens, wax myrtle, bayberry, lotus, waterlilies, sunflowers, witch-hazel, sage, bladderwort, liverwort, thistles, pawpaw, chokeberry, dewberry, elderberry, and violets.
