Driftmark Spore Filter Fern

Driftmark's gray-green fern grows from cork chips and mineral felt in a blunt tray labeled for grease pencil. The fronds feel like a cat's tongue and smell of wet slate; a yeasty odor means captured fungus has colonized the root mat. Give it five hours of low amber light, mist every third day, and write each mat change where the next watch can see it. Independent haulers favor the offline record and cheap refill felt. Corporate berths prefer sensors, subscriptions, and somebody else to blame. Positioned beside suit lockers, the fern catches nuisance spores before cabin filters do, but it never sterilizes air. Overwater the felt and trapped growth sporulates. Forget the date, then pull a month-old mat barehanded, and the crew gets a coughing outbreak plus an audit trail documenting exactly whose initials were last.