In 1933, the residents of an outlying region of the Philippine Islands witnessed for the first time a strange, invasive ecosystem. It grew from the earth in tall, elegant stalks and branches, their fingers splitting and knotting together like undersea coral. Shades of vibrant blue and violet spread across the growths, sometimes glowing with an iridescent amber. Occasionally, bulbous lobes and still stranger shapes swelled outward from these colonies. Some were covered in porous openings that pursed like lips, or cloaked in wispy filaments that shivered and swayed against the wind. Wherever the “coral” grew thickest, sheets of mist seeped from coalescing masses that had overtaken the native soil, concealing whatever lay deeper within.