The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
What you see above is a real plant from mythology? Okay, that sentence didn’t make the most amount of sense. The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary comes from Central Asia. Its fruit was a sheep, which would graze on the area around the plant. Both would die when there was no more foliage to eat. The dead lamb could be eaten and its blood was sweet like honey. The wool could be used like cotton, which might be the origin of this legend.
So, you can see that fictional flora can be pretty strange. They aren’t as rigid as one may think and can be mixed with fauna. So, why not have some fun with the concept.
- Would you create a deadly or helpful fictional plant?
- What would it do?
- Do you think putting some attention to plant life can help even an Earth-based book?
Legends of Windemere 
I had to laugh because in a previous post, you mentioned that in many cases, plants in fantasy and science fiction ate people. I watched an episode of the Legend of Korra where a guy ran into the spirit wilds and was gulped up by a large plant. 😊
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Aren’t there real plants like that? You have to know how to prepare them.
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Sweet wormwood and foxglove are two real plants that are poisonous and used for medicine.
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It is a fascinating idea and not new, like Day of the Triffids. Plants in real life eat creatures, albeit tiny creatures! Very primitive organisms can be difficult to classify as flora or fauna. But plants that are a mix with proper mammals or birds would be really weird and fun ideas. A cross between and elephant and an oak tree!
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I remember that movie! It used to come on TV when I was a kid!
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Yes a classic science fiction.
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For some reason, I remember hearing about a story that had plants with animal traits. Might have been a manga or anime. Never got to read it.
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I think I would go with a helpful fictional plant.
If approached by the worthy it would cure all illness. The unworthy would immediate get a new illness.
I think some attention to plant life in any book could enhance a story.
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Worthy/unworthy rules always scare me. I mean, who is deciding on that? Could a plant have different requirements for worthiness than a person? I mean, maybe vegetarians are screwed while every child who hates eating veggies can get healed. 😀
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Excellent point. Maybe the worthy are non vegan, meat eaters.
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I think something helpful. When you distill it you get a magical oil that eliminates warts or something. I think plant details can really help. I wrote a Jason Fogg short story once where wolfsbane was misused to commit a murder for Jason to figure out.
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Getting rid of warts would make one a fortune. Moles too.
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1) Would you create a helpful or deadly fictional plant?
I created a “dragon plant” in my gothic werewolf novel, The Grimhold Wolf. It had a central base similar to a pitcher plant, but it also had tentacles that could creep over the ground, although slowly. It would be attracted to vibrations of people or animals walking, clamp on, and inject poison. I used it mostly as an obstacle in the landscape, but it did figure in a main plot when someone stumbled into it, nearly died, and then blamed the wrong person for what happened.
2) What would it do?
I guess I already answered that.
3) Do you think putting some attention to plant life can help even an Earth-based book?
Sure, it’s an important part of world building. If you describe crops in the field it gives a lot of information about the society and what they eat. Plants can also have thematic angles, for instance frost being on plants or wind moving through them to herald a storm or heavy tree cover making an area dark and dank.
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Excellent point on the crops. Didn’t think of that for some reason. It’s probably one of the most obvious, yet most easily missed, parts to add to a society.
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