Flora (In Progress)

[Kender Bard]

Here we have an (in)complete listing of all the Naruta-unique plants, as well as a little description of them and any possible uses in herbology.


Babybane - This is non-flowering plant. It is somewhat edible, in low doses. This plant's leaves are made into a tea and drunk daily in order to act as a contraceptive. When drunk regularly, it renders the drinker infertile. If the tea treatment is stopped, the infertility will remain for the remainder of the menstrual cycle for a woman (roughly one month with variations) and roughly three months for men. It also takes this same amount of time for the treatment to take effect reliably. If the plant is injested in low doses, it will not kill an adult though it may poison a child. It may also induce abortion in pregnant women. Taken in high doses, this plant is poisonous to all. Continuous, unabated usage may lead to permanent sterility, though the time it takes to cause this is considerable; generally 4 or more years.


Icemend - This is a flowering plant. The flower has white petals fading to green towards the pistons. The flower has an unpleasant stench. It is not edible. This plant is ground up to form a rather stinky paste (though the smell can be alleviated with the addition of other herbs). This paste, when applied to areas of frostbite, helps to mend the skin and preserve fingers and toes that would otherwise have to be amputated. However, the mixture is only effective if applied within a day of acquiring the frostbite. After this period of time, it simply serves to alleviate symptoms.


Third Eye Flower - This is a flowering plant. The flower has purple petals with olive-green lines going down the center of each petal. The flower smells quite sweet. This plant is edible. Taking this plant acts as a hallucinogen for Mind types. The Mind ingesting it has all their perceptions turned inward so he walks amongst his own mindscape. It is generally considered an unpleasant thing unless one really wishes to relive a particular memory (and many others until the effects wear off). For non-Minds, this plant puts an individual into a calming trance-like state. The flower is favored by mystics for their rituals.

Assassin's Friend - This is a flowering plant. The flower has dark red petals with a pale yellow center. The flower smells very putrid. The plant is very poisonous. It grows very sparsely in areas that were affected by demons during the demonic incursion. If ingested, whether whole or ground up and placed in another substance, it poisons the person who eats it. Any water, including healing water, only exacerbates the poison, quickening demise. Because of this, the plant is actively sought and destroyed by many healers. Combined with its rarity, the item can be purchased only at the highest of prices, often costing gold for just a small amount from shady dealers.

[Darastrix]

Fever Rose

This is a flowering plant that bears a strong resemblance to many typical varieties of shrub roses--thorny stems, oval, sharp-toothed leaves, and blooms of nested, overlapping petals. Its petals start yellow at the stamen and gradually deepen to a fire-orange at the tips. It has a sweet, musky scent.

While the petals of many rose varieties are safe to sugar and eat, and their hips are used in teas and jellies, fever rose is not among them. When ingested, the rose has a strong warming effect, raising a person's core body temperature. Its petals are used in teas by healers to treat severe hypothermia (the hips are considered too potent to use at all), but the dosage is difficult to predict, especially with dried plants. For this reason, fever rose is used only in dire emergencies and the patient is kept under constant supervision. If a person's core temperature gets too high for too long, brain damage can occur.

Fever rose can even be dangerous to harvest; being pricked by the thorns has the same effect as ingesting the petals, though with a faster onset and shorter duration. The danger here is that while picking the flowers, a person rarely gets away with only one scratch. If the need is great enough and the rose isn't in bloom, pricking with thorns may be used in place of drinking fever petal tea.

The rose grows primarily in southern Khelek/northern Mentis, northern Talen'sul, and near the top of Mount Humontis. It blooms for roughly three months: Septi - Zira (Humontis), Isolde - Vorst (Talen'sul), Mena - Septi (Khelek/Mentis).

[Darastrix]

Taed's Kiss

The stem of this plant grows horizontally across the ground, similar to a vine, though it doesn't wrap or climb other plants. From the main stem grow vertical stalks that reach about four inches tall. Clusters of three to five flowers bloom on these stalks. A large specimen can have as many as twenty flowers total. The bright red petals that form the flower give it an uncanny resemblance to a pair of lips, and when one looks closely into the center of the flower, what of the stamen that can be seen is reminiscent of a tongue. It has a cloyingly sweet scent when fully mature, and is a night-blooming flower. It also will bloom after rainfall, regardless of time of day.

Taed's kiss is not edible, though most of the plant is not poisonous. The nectar it secretes, however, is deadly. Ingesting the nectar causes almost immediate relaxation and a sense of euphoria and well-being, allowing the victim to die without fear or sorrow. Those found dead of Taed's kiss often wear blissful smiles. The nectar is also what gives the flower its cloying smell. Before the flower begins to produce its toxic nectar, the smell is merely sweet and pleasant.

The plant is also known as "suicide vine," as that seems to be its only practical use. The nectar cannot last outside of the plant. It loses potency when dry, and it dries extremely quickly when harvested, making it useless as a weapon-coating, and it loses its toxicity when mixed with food or drink. But for the truly desperate, it's a gift from Taed himself. The more "romantic" notion is to kiss the lips of the flower and taste the nectar that way, though peeling back the petals and licking or eating the nectar-coated stamen works just as well.

Taed's kiss grows in sparse numbers in hot, dry regions. One or two plants may be found growing near one another, and then there won't be another seen for miles. The exception is Athrug, where a small plot of about twenty plants can be found within sight of Taed's home. It can also be found across Naurorod, in southwestern Reave, extreme western Ilyamen, and in the north of Clan Beleg's territory in the Beastlands.

[Darastrix]

Mindmelt

This is a flowering plant. The flower has pink petals with yellow tips, and no noticeable odor.

The entire plant is edible, though the seed pods tend to be the most sought-after piece; they are as potent as an entire plant. Mindmelt is generally ground up (or, in some cases, even ingested whole) for its strong depressant effects. It sends the individual eating it into an intense state of relaxation. Eating the plant raw is dangerous, though it does cause the imbiber to feel its effects more quickly and strongly. Too much of the plant, in any form, is toxic. Eating the raw plant has the possibility of causing major organ failure, especially the heart and lungs. Taken in a crushed up, dried form is considered "safer."

Mindmelt grows around Mount Humontis and the Beastlands.

Info by Kender Bard