Aurelia

(Not to be confused with the IC2 crop with the same name)

Aurelia is a plant added by Thaumic Bases. During a full moon, this plant occasionally spawns Aurelia Petals, which are a source of auram essentia and a component of the Impure Tear.

Obtaining
Aurelias are crafted in a Crucible or Thaumatorium from a pink tulip, 8 herba, 2 alienis, and 2 auram.

The research is considered forbidden knowledge (minor), giving the player 1 normal and 1 permanent warp. Its only prerequisite is "Thaumic Nature", both located in the Thaumic Bases tab in the Thaumonomicon.

Usage
Aurelias can be planted on grass and dirt. During a full moon, at night, any random tick received by the plant will attempt to spawn aurelia petal blocks. If the aurelia can see the sky, a block in a 9x9 region centered in the plant is selected (favoring blocks close to the center), and if it is an air block immediately above grass or dirt, it is replaced with an aurelia petal block. This block can then be instantly mined, dropping a single aurelia petal. The chosen block can be up to two blocks higher or one block lower than the aurelia block; only the topmost block is selected.

The main use of aurelia petals in GTNH is as a component of the impure tear. Aurelia Petals can be distilled for 6 auram and 1 herba essentia, but there are better/easier sources of auram, like terra warts.

Aurelia is also an infusion component for Thaumic Bases' Void Plant Seed.

Strategy
Aurelia plants only spawn petals at night, during a full moon. A Minecraft night lasts for 10000 ticks, and on each tick 3 blocks in each 16x16x16 subchunk are chosen to receive a random tick. Therefore, Aurelia plants are ticked, on average, $$\frac{3\times 10000}{4096} \approx 7.32$$ times per night. Because the chosen block in the 9x9 range may already contain petals, or it may be the aurelia itself, an aurelia plant left unattended can be expected to generate around 6-7 petals during a full moon night. Constantly harvesting the petals may increase this average to closer to the theoretical 7.32, but the increase is not that significant.

The production of petals can be increased with a World Accelerator. In this case, harvesting petals as soon as they are generated do become significant.