This list of fictional plants describes invented plants that appear in works of fiction.
In fiction
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Audrey Jr.: A human-eating plant in the 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors
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Audrey II: A singing, fast-talking alien plant with a taste for human blood in the stage show Little Shop of Horrors and the 1986 film of the same name.
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Bat-thorn: A plant, similar to Aconitum, offering protection against in Mark of the Vampire.
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Biollante: A kaiju created using Godzilla and plant DNA.
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Bush of many uses: A bush native to Vergon 6 in Futurama.
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Cactacae: A sentient, cactus-like species from China Miéville's Bas-Lag series.
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Dyson tree: A hypothetical genetically engineered plant capable of growing on a comet, suggested by the physicist Freeman Dyson.
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Flower of Life: A flower featured in some anime series: The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, Robotech, and Nurse Angel Ririka SOS.
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G'Quan Eth: A plant indigenous to the Narn homeworld, used as incense in religious ceremonies from Babylon 5. It is ritually burned as incense, and its seeds are a narcotic for Centauri when dropped in alcohol.
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Inkvine: A creeping plant that is used as a whip in the Dune universe.
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Integral Trees: Enormous trees from the science-fiction novel The Integral Trees by Larry Niven. They are 100 kilometers long and have a leafy "tuft" at each end oriented in opposite directions forming an ∫, the integral symbol.
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Kite-Eating Tree: A tree featured in the comic strip Peanuts.
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Krynoid: An extraterrestrial carnivorous plant in episode "The Seeds of Doom" from Doctor Who.
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Lyekka: A plant able to take the form of humans, usually a woman, in the TV-series Lexx.
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Mariphasa lupina lumina (Wolf Flower): A rare selenotropic, phosphorescent plant found only in the mountains of Tibet from Werewolf of London.
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The Mendacity Tree: A tree that grows when lies are whispered to it, and bears hallucinogenic fruit, in Frances Hardinge's novel The Lie Tree.
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Plant Men of Barsoom: A race of humanoid plants from the Barsoom of Edgar Rice Burroughs
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Re-annual plants: Plants in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series which flower and grow before their seed germinates.
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Red weed: A red Martian plant appearing in The War of the Worlds.
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Sapient pearwood: A rare species of plant in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. It can grant other objects sapience.
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Snake vine: A dusky, variegated vine originating from The Sword of Truth. Its bite contains deadly tooth-like thorns that burrow into the skin and eventually kill the victim.
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Serenna veriformans: A fictional plant that appears in the Jurassic Park franchise.
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Sukebind: A fictional flower in the novel Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.
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Tesla trees: Large trees from the planet Hyperion in Hyperion Cantos. They can absorb and release electricity via their crown.
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Tree-of-Life: The ancestor of yams, with similar appearance and taste, from Larry Niven's Known Space novels.
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: Carnivorous plants which possess a whip-like poisonous sting as well as mobility by three foot-like appendages, from the novel The Day of the Triffids (1951) by John Wyndham. They subsequently appeared in a radio series (BBC, 1960), a motion picture (1962), a TV series (BBC, 1981) and a sequel novel, The Night of the Triffids (2001) by Simon Clark.
In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth
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Aeglos: A plant similar to a gorse, named for the Elvish 'snow-thorn'
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Athelas: A healing plant with long leaves (also known as Kingsfoil or asëa aranion).
[ The Fellowship of the Ring, "Flight to the Ford"][ The Return of the King, "The Houses of Healing", Index IV]
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Elanor: A small star-shaped yellow flower from Tol Eressëa and Lothlórien.
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Mallorn: A huge tree with green-and-silver leaves turning golden in autumn and remaining so till spring,
[ The Fellowship of the Ring, "Lothlórien"]
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Nimloth: The White Tree of Númenor, a seedling of Celeborn, a seedling of Galathilion, created in the image of Telperion.
[ The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion", ch. 3 "Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor"][ The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion", ch. 8 "Of the Darkening of Valinor"]
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Niphredil: A small white flower from Doriath and Lothlórien.
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Pipe-weed: "A strain of the herb nicotiana" (tobacco); varieties mentioned include Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby, Southern Star (grown in the Shire) and Southlinch, from Bree.
[ The Lord of the Rings, "Prologue"][ The Return of the King, "Homeward Bound"]
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Oiolairë: An evergreen fragrant tree highly esteemed by the Númenóreans.
[ Unfinished Tales, "A Description of the Island of Númenor"]
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Simbelmynë: A white flower that grew in Gondolin and Rohan (also known as Evermind and Alfirin).
[ The Two Towers, "The King of the Golden Hall"]
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Two Trees of Valinor: Magic trees that illuminated the Valinor in ancient times.
In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series
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Bubotuber: A slug-like plant whose essence is useful in treating pimples.
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Chinese Chomping Cabbage: A flesh-eating plant featured in Hogwarts Legacy.
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Devil's Snare: A vine that prefers to grow in damp and dark areas and tangles its victims to death. Professor Sprout uses the Devil's Snare, among other objects, to protect the Philosopher's Stone.
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Dirigible plum: A tree with fruits that grow upside-down.
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Dittany: A herb with powerful medicinal properties.
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Fanged Geranium
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Gillyweed: A seaweed-like plant that grants temporary fish-like characteristics to those who ingest it.
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Gurdyroot: A plant that resembles a green onion. It is the basis for a foul-tasting purple infusion brewed by the to fend off Gulping Plimpies.
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Honking Daffodil.]]
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Leaping toadstool
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Mandrake: Tubers that look like babies when young. Their screams can kill when fully grown. A potion made from mature mandrakes can reverse petrification.
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Mimbulus mimbletonia: A cactus-like plant.
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Snargaluff: A flesh-eating tree.
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Venomous tentacula
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: A tree with mobile, club-like branches.
In Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere Series
- On the planet Roshar (The Stormlight Archive)
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Firemoss: A red-brown moss that, when activated by rubbing between the thumb and forefinger, releases wisps of smoke that create feelings of euphoria when inhaled and is used as a recreational drug.
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Knobweed: Like most of the plants found on Rohsar, knobweed has adapted to survive the planet's harsh storms. The reed-like stalk anchors itself directly to stone and the frond found at the top of the stalk has the ability to contract and retreat into the stalk during storms for protection. Knobweed reproduces by releasing fluffy pappuses that carry seeds into the air. The milky white sap found inside knobweed stems is a natural and highly valuable antiseptic used in the field and by established apothecaries.
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Prickletac: Prickletac plants are the colonies of much smaller living buds. As each generation of buds dies it converts to a hard, stony material which the next generation builds upon.
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Rockbuds: Rockbud is both a general term for several shelled plants on Roshar, including Lavis Polyps, Vinebuds, and Prickletac Shrubs, and the proper name for a specific plant. The true Rockbud plant is a shelled plant containing lengthy tendrils that reach out to lap up water (and occasionally animal blood).
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Shalebark: A class of stony, fanlike plants often used for decoration and landscaping.
- On the planet Nalthis (Warbreaker)
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Tears of Edgli: Vibrantly colored flowers that grow only in the temperate T'Telir climate. Highly valuable both economically and magically.
- On the planet First of the Sun (Sixth of the Dusk);
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Unnamed Telepathic Trees: Many flora and fauna on this planet communicate with a form of natural telepathy. Certain unnamed plants living on the islands that make up the Pantheon send false thoughts of wounded or frightened animals to attract predators, which often fight and leave victims dead near enough to the tree to provide nutrition. These plants are not directly carnivorous.
- On the planet Taldain (White Sand series)
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Dorim vines: Dorim vines live under the sand that covers most of Taldain's Dayside continent, reaching down to the water table where they fill themselves with water as a defensive mechanism against predators – the hard shells of many of the continents animals is dissolved by contact with water. Pouring water onto sand draws nearby vines out of the ground.
In Dungeons & Dragons
The role-playing game
Dungeons & Dragons has a number of, according to Charles Elliott "not-very-ingenious", imaginary plant species,
as well as "a taxonomy of fungal horrors", which Ben Woodard considers eerie not only for their poisonous nature, but because many have the ability to move.
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Basidirond: A giant multi-stemmed fungus creature.
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Hangman tree: A tree that will attempt to strangle anyone who ventures under it.
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Kelpie: A shape-shifting mass of animate seaweed that can imitate a woman or other creatures, and drowns its victims.
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Myconid: A "race of man-sized sentient fungus creatures", "some of which pack a mean punch", and which have the "ability to spray poisons that can disable their foes".
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Oaken defender: An enormous disk-shaped plant that lives in dryad groves and assists in their defense.
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Obliviax: A black moss that steals memories from intelligent creatures.
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Phantom fungus:
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Shambling mound:
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Shrieker: Ambulatory fungus,
[
]
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Tendriculos: An enormous, savage, sentient plant resembling a huge, tangled shrubbery.
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Treant: Sentient, humanoid trees who protect forests from antagonists.
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Vegepygmy: A "mold man", a former human transformed by russet mold.
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Wood woad: A creature resembling big, burly, bestial men made entirely of wood and bark bearing, but without foliage.
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Yellow musk creeper:
In Monty Python's Flying Circus
The following plants appear in the David Attenborough sketch of the last
Monty Python episode.
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Angolan sauntering tree ( Amazellus robin ray).
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Gambian sidling bush.
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Puking Tree of Mozambique.
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The Turkish little rude plant.
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Walking tree of Dahomey ( Quercus nicholas parsonus).
In Avatar
In the
Avatar franchise, plants on Pandora have evolved according to the characteristics of their environment, which has a thicker atmosphere than Earth. Pandoran plants can communicate via a phenomenon called 'signal transduction'.
In video games
Video games frequently feature fictional plants as items that can be collected by the player, or occasionally appear as non-player characters.
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The Monster Hunter series has multiple fictional flowers and plants that can be gathered by the player character, including nulberries, might seeds, flowferns, and dragonstrike nuts.
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The titular plants from the Plants vs. Zombies series, which are used to defeat zombie enemies.
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In The Legend of Zelda series, plants play a significant role. In many games, bomb flowers allow Link to explode rocks and obstacles.
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Broc Flower: A medicinal plant appearing in the Fallout series.
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Various Pokémon species are Grass-type or based on plants. Prominent Grass-type Pokémon include the starter Pokémon Bulbasaur and Sprigatito, Floragato, and Meowscarada.
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Candypop Bud: A flower found in the Pikmin series. They transform Pikmin thrown into them into a certain color.
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Chuck the Plant: A plant found in several of LucasArts' games.
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Elowan: A race of plant-like creatures in Starflight computer game.
[ ]
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Fire Flower: A flower from the Mario series that transforms Mario into Fire Mario.
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Flowah: A sunflower-like monster from My Singing Monsters.
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Flowey: A sentient flower who is one of the main antagonists of Undertale.
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Genesis trees: Trees located in the world of Legaia from the video game Legend of Legaia. They can keep a large area free of the Mist.
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Laganaphyllis simnovorii: A carnivorous cow-like plant found in The Sims series of games, commonly known as the Cowplant.
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Lunar Tears, from the Nier series.
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Nirnroot: A rare, alchemical plant from The Elder Scrolls series.
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Plantera: A massive pink flower from the game Terraria, resembling a venus flytrap.
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Piranha Plant: Plants with mouths from the Mario series, often depicted as sentient. An individual Piranha Plant appears as a playable DLC character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
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Potbelly: A flytrap-like monster from My Singing Monsters.
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Supox utricularia: A race of kind, sentient plant creatures from the Star Control series.
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Sylvari: A race of sapient plant people in the MMO Guild Wars 2, available as a playable race.
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Wumpa Fruit: A collectible fruit in the Crash Bandicoot franchise.
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Xander Root: A medicinal plant appearing in the Fallout series.
In comics
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The Black Mercy is an extraterrestrial plant appearing in the DC Comics universe that forces those it attaches to to witness a simulation of their greatest desire. It plays a prominent role in the story "For the Man Who Has Everything", where Mongul uses it on Superman.
[Moore, Alan (w), Gibbons, Dave (a). "For the Man Who Has Everything", Superman Annual #11 (1985). DC Comics.]
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The Cotati are a plant-like species from the Marvel Comics universe who originate from the same planet as the Kree.
In mythology
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Aglaophotis: A type of Peony said to be magical.
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Austras koks: A tree which grows from the start of the Sun's daily journey across the sky in Latvian mythology.
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Barnacle tree: A mythical tree believed in the Middle Ages to have barnacles that opened to reveal Barnacle goose. The story may have started from growing on driftwood.
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Fern flower: A magic plant in Baltic mythology thought to only bloom one night, sought by lovers.
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Lotus tree: A plant in Greek mythology bearing a fruit that causes pleasant drowsiness.
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Moly: A magic herb in Greek mythology with a black root and white blossoms.
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Raskovnik: A magic plant in Serbian folklore which can open any lock.
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Vegetable Lamb of Tartary: A mythical plant supposed by medieval thinkers to explain the existence of cotton.
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Yggdrasil: The world tree of Norse mythology.
Hoaxes
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Man-eating plant: A fictitious tree in the forests of Madagascar that possesses mobile, ensnaring stems.
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Spaghetti tree: A tree from which spaghetti is harvested. It was an April Fool's Day joke launched by the BBC TV programme Panorama in 1957.
See also
Further reading
Notes
