Adding plants into your stories might not seem important, but they can be a helpful tool in making your fantasy worlds seem more real. If it is a goal of yours to create your own fantasy plants, I hope this post saves you time.

A while back I did a post about real-life animals that have such extraordinary abilities that they seem like they belong in a fantasy novel, and this time we are going to focus on plants. For writers, taking inspiration from the real-world can be a great time saver. For example; let’s say you want to create a carnivorous plant that attracts scavenger animals with the scent of corpses; well, you could take inspiration from the corpse flower and pitcher plant(both below) and take note of how those plants work. With your new notes, you can create a fantasy plant that seems realistic.

The Lava-eating Cactus

Lava cacti play a significant role in turning empty lava fields into lush bio-diverse landscapes. As lava cacti establish themselves on barren lava fields, their roots penetrate the volcanic rock, then release a bacteria that breaks down the lava. This breakdown of rock releases nutrients for the cactus, then when the cactus dies, the cactus becomes the soil for other plants to start on.

The Flower that Smells Like death

The corpse flower, is a plant famed for its enormous size, and pungent odor resembling rotting flesh. Producing one of the worlds largest flowers — reaching heights over 3 meters (10 feet) — its blooming event draws crowds to botanical gardens worldwide despite it’s smell. This foul odor serves to attract pollinators, facilitating the plant’s reproduction.

Sheltering Under This Tree could Kill You

The Manchineel tree, is a plant with an attractive appearance which hides it’s danger. Nearly every part of the tree contains toxic compounds; including the milky sap, which is highly caustic and can cause severe skin irritation and blistering upon contact. Ingesting any part of the tree, including its sweet apple-like fruit, can lead to intense burning sensations, vomiting, and even death. Standing near a Manchineel tree during rain can be hazardous due to a phenomenon known as “Manchineel rain.” The rainwater dripping from the tree can cause skin irritation, burns, and blistering upon contact, and inhaling the vapor from the sap can lead to respiratory irritation.

Glow in the dark mushrooms

Bioluminescent (glow-in-the-dark) fungi, possess the ability to emit light. These mushrooms achieve bioluminescence through a chemical reaction, which produces light without generating heat. Typically found on decaying wood or in leaf litter, bioluminescent mushrooms glow with a soft, eerie light, often in shades of green or blue. While the exact purpose of their bioluminescence is not fully understood, it’s believed to attract insects that aid in spore dispersal, or possibly to deter predators. Whatever the reason, humans tend to like it too, so thanks to scientists, you can now even buy flowers that have this ability.

Carnivorous plants

While most people only think of plants getting energy from photosynthesis (the sun) there are actually many ways a plant might get energy; one of which includes protein. Several species of carnivorous(protein eating) plants have evolved to obtain nutrients from insects and other small animals.

• Venus Flytraps. Perhaps the most iconic carnivorous plant, the Venus flytrap captures insects with specialized leaves that snap shut when triggered by tiny hairs. Once closed, the plant secretes enzymes to digest the prey and absorb the nutrients, including proteins, released during digestion.
• Pitcher plants have modified leaves that form deep, pitcher-shaped structures filled with digestive fluids. Insects are attracted to the nectar or coloration of the pitcher, fall into the fluid, and are digested by enzymes produced by the plant.
• Sundews have glandular hairs on their leaves that secrete a sticky substance resembling dewdrops. Insects become trapped in the sticky secretion, which then covers and digests them, providing the plant with essential nutrients, including proteins.
• Bladderworts are aquatic or semi-aquatic plants with small bladder-like structures that suck in tiny aquatic organisms, such as protozoa and small crustaceans, through suction traps. Once captured, the prey is digested, and the plant absorbs the nutrients.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the Venus Flytrap is that it is a plant that can count. It takes a lot of energy for a flytrap to move, so to ensure the chances that it will catch pray, it waits and counts the time until another hair is touched. For example, if on hair is touched and another is not, something may have just brushed by it, and is not worth the trap closing. However, if more hairs are touched within several seconds, it will close.

The Plant that can See

Boquila trifoliolata is a plant that likes to mimic the appearance of other plants. It was once thought that it did so by scent or touch, but after experiments using a fake plant it could not reach, Boquila trifoliolata still managed to mimic the fake plant.

The Plant That Lights Itself On Fire

While Cistus plants are renowned for their beauty and resilience, some species possess a remarkable and somewhat mysterious trait: the ability to spontaneously burst into flames under certain conditions. The combination of the plant’s highly flammable oils and the intense heat can lead to spontaneous combustion, resulting in small fires.

Mind Controlling Fungi

If you watched the TV show or played the game The Last of Us, you may already be familiar with this one. However, just in case, here is a warning that this one does tend to freak people out.

Cordyceps are an eerie fungi that spread by controlling living hosts. When a spore lands on an insect (such as an ant) it will gradually take control of it and encourage it to go to the location the fungai thinks is best. Once it is there, the fungai will grow on the insect then release spores into the forest, infecting more insects.

Plants That Hides and Learns

Mimosa pudica is a plant that will try to protect itself by moving. It’s first defense when something touches it is to fold in leaves against it’s stem. It’s second defense is to “play dead” by having the whole leaf go limp. After a set amount of time, the stem and leaves will return to normal, but perhaps the most interesting thing about them is that it can learn. To keep from wasting energy by moving more than it needs to, it can learn not to close on touches that do not harm it. Where and how it stores information is not yet known.

Both this plant and the venus flytrap can contradict what it means for something to have a brain. That is because if you ask someone what makes something have a brain, they will say something like “the ability to move quickly,” or “the ability to count or learn.”

The Plant that Hunt With Scent

Many plants use the ability to smell in amazing ways, such as how tomato plants that are being attacked by pests will release a scent into the air that warns other plants to create insect repellent. However, instead of using scent to detect or warn of danger, there is a species that uses the ability to smell to hunt down prey. Dodder plants are parasitic plants that steal the energy of other plants, and even in experiments where they hid the victim from view, the dodder was able to find it. It was determined that the dodder finds its prey through scent.

These are just some of the amazing abilities real-life plants can have. I hope this list greatly helps inspire and speed up the crafting of your fantasy plants.