It is a Neotropical epiphyte - that is, it lives on other plants as do bromeliads. As far as I am concerned, this means you could consider it a parasite, that term being very context-dependent. So, to try and drag this back on topic, it is Mallia and Aldrya in cahoots.
Last time I tried to bring biological ideas in to Glorantha I was told the biology is very different, but that wasn't my point. So, in this instance, the real world blurring between parasitism and mutualism leads into the idea that a way for Aldryami to create Chaos (in parallel with Heortling kinstrife etc) is to overstep the boundaries by being parasitic, so opening the door to Mallia (cf. Neil Smith and Ron Edwards' more thought out approaches to Chaos than Bad Monster Bad, Kill!).
And as for Jane's querie as to what products might be mundane in one part of Glorantha, but hugely valued in another, I recently had some vanilla ice cream after a long period of...ahem...abstinence. If you stop and taste it, it is truly wonderful, akin to chocolate, so you can perceive how it could have been a prized commodity in the past. As an inspiration for a game, I think that sort of thing is fantastic - look at the importance of the Spice Islands (one of them swapped for New Amsterdam if I remember right), the Dutch thieving coffee plants (still proud of it in the botanical gardens in Amsterdam), silkworms, Mexica gold as Jane intimated. To create that as a theme in a game I think is a step beyond "Will your clan survive?" "Can you foil the plots of the evil cultists?" - tricky but good if you can pull it off. Darjiini (sp?) moonreeds, maize, Char-Un skymetal thingy, horses even. Our history is so dominated by the importance of these things - Jared Diamond does HeroQuest.
Sam.
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