I need inspiration for plant monsters /tg/. Outside of photosynthesizing

>>52457304
>Outside of photosynthesizing and occasionally being carnivorous, what can plants do?
They can grow on/in/under things.

>>52457304
Google 'sandbox tree'

>>52457304
poisons, barbs (theres this one fucking cactus thats like a land mine with its spines), animate vines if they have the energy to burn, almost all drugs are derived from plant chemicals, and parasitic growth via mold/other shit

there's tons more, look up that one toxic garden and creepy plant shit.

source: ran a game once where the players killed the guy who was supposed to be the arc villain, so I made the actual villain this guy who could control plants they met earlier.

thing is he wasn't that strong so I had to get creative.

turns out he became one of the greatest villains I've ever made

>>52457304
human pollinate plant monster for a bit of nectar and other pleasuring things every season.

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>>52457304
The australian pain tree also known as the suicide plant, known to drive horses running off cliffs and men to eat a bullet after an encounter with its stinging hairs, tipped in silica to act as syringes and deliver a powerful neurotoxin.

The squirting cucumber, toxic and inedible but fascinating as when the fruit grows ripe and drop they spray out their seeds over a remarkable distance.
Another plant has coiled seeds that drill themselves into the ground.

The strangler fig grows up and around another tree as a vine but eventually chokes out its host which will rot away and leave the empty shell of the fig.

Manchineel tree. Also known as the worst tree ever.

Poisonous fruit, poisonous sap, poisonous wood... The fruit is deadly if ingested, though reportedly sweet at first taste before horrific gastrointestinal distress overwhelms the eater and kills them. The sap causes rashes and blisters on skin contact, not only being an irritant but also a skin allergen, so you get allergy rash and irritant rash at the same time. The wood, stems, and leaves also are filled with the sap, so every part of the plant is filled with it. It basically drips with sap, especially when it rains, and it's been known to discolor car paint. Don't try to burn this abomination of a tree, since the smoke is also toxic and an irritant, and can really fuck up your eyes.

Also the stinging tree, which is less toxic, but much more immediately painful. It's covered in silica hairs that constantly break off at the slightest irritation, so even a light breeze is able to loose a rain of poison-coated syringe-like spines. They cause immediate stinging and it can last for several weeks. They also like a lot of light, so they may sometimes grow next to open spaces like pathways, though someone will have definitely marked its location to alert any travellers.

>>52457304
Any number of plants parasitize other plants. Wouldn't be too terrible a stretch to make humans a target.

There are orchids that have flowers that mimic female insects to entice males to try to copulate with the, spreading pollen.

Its been shown that some plants dump pheromones and chemicals when being attacked by insects that actually attract predatory insects to eat their pests.

plants communicate through airborne chemicals. that smell when you cut grass? countless screaming wounded blades.

plants (particularly trees) in fact do help raise their young. they will use their roots to deliver nutrients to the young while actively blocking off roots of competitors.

the vine kudzu is ridiculously fast growing, able to cover a foot in a day in the right conditions. cutting it up only increases the number of vines as the cuts will keep growing, and they release isoprene which can cause serious problems in an urban environment

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https://youtu.be/XuKjBIBBAL8
This fungus that takes over small creatures and was the inspiration for the infected in The Last of Us could be interestingly incorporated.

it would help if you told us what biome your campaign takes place in, but off the top of my head

Mandragora root, super magical root with wildly variant properties based on who you ask. The root is shaped like a human and screams when drawn from the ground. Hunters usually employ dogs to uproot the plant when they find it by tying a rope around the dog's neck to the plant then running far away while calling the dog.

There is a tree in Africa, I believe it has been mentioned already in this thread, covered in spines and it's fruit explodes when struck, it has enough force to seriously wound or kill someone.

Some trees in the Amazon have tumor-like globules that grow on them which are actually beneficial. The globules are hollow and perfect home for a symbiotic ant which protects the tree from pests and even large animals which would hurt it.

Bamboo grows so fast you can hear it creaking and twisting. There are rumors of an execution method in which a man is tied to the ground above bamboo shoots and the shoots are allowed to grow up and through him.

There are numerous carnivorous plants, you've probably already heard of Venus-fly traps and pitcher plants but there are others. The sundew (might be sundrop) has leaves covered in sticky globs of mucus which smell sweet. The scent attracts small bugs which get stuck and subsequently devoured. There is also an aquatic plant which grows underwater cavities that actually form a small vacuum with a small trapdoor. The "door" is covered in sensitive hairs which trigger when small bugs get close, opening the door and the rush of water trying to fill the cavity pulls the insect in along with it.

There is a forest in Germany I want to say that is debatably one of the largest organisms on the planet, the trees are all part of the same plant, connected by root systems

There is a tree in the Amazon that grows along the ground as a snaking root and only sprouts once it finds a patch of light.

>>52461790
cont.

There are plants whose reproductive cycle is controlled by forest fires, getting torched and burned to ashes acts as fertilizer for the next generation.

You may have heard of Peyote, the sacred drug used in the American southwest for Native American rituals, including the famous vision quest. There are several "false peyotes" including small cacti that look like stones.

In Africa one method of using psychotropic plants is to cut them in half and rub the juices into fresh cuts made on the scalp.

Kudzu is an invasive vine that is literally eating the American south.

There is a forest in Russia called the Dancing Woods. There are numerous theories as to why the trees grow in spirals and incredible twists, the most plausible is an infestation of tree worms.

There is a fruiting plant called "Dolls' Eye". It is a blood red stalk with many white berries. The black pit of the berry is slightly exposed leading to the "doll eye" look. Birds can eat the berries no problem but they cause cardiac arrest in mammals.

There is a mountanous moss that grows as bulbous mounds that can measure meters across. The moss grows exceptionally slow to the point that scientists believe the largest mounds may be older than human beings as a species.

There is an orb shaped algae that grows in the Japan, it's round shapes ensures that it gets constant sunlight from the soft waves of the lakes it grows in.

There is a fern that can enter a "sleep" state in which it can survive with no food or water for decades until it is rehydrated.

There is a fungus that grows in wheat. If villagers aren't careful and the infected wheat may be ground into flour and used for bread. Ingesting too much of the fungus causes psychotropic effects so bad it can drive people mad. There are documented cases of entire towns going crazy because their grain stock is infected.

>>52461847
even more cont.

There is a tribe in the Amazon (I might have the location wrong) whose staple food is a fruit which acts as a natural contraceptive. Use of this fruit as a staple has gone on so long the people have no knowledge of intercourse as a way to reproduce and as such have developed interesting social habits around sex.

Tomatoes plants are a type of nightshade. Same with Potatoes. Their leaves are slightly poisonous.

Jackfruit is the fruit of a tree which takes a bit like banana. The fruit is covered in spikes and can weigh 30 pounds or more

Despite what you think banana flavored candy is actually banana flavored. The flavor is of an extinct species of domesticated banana that was wiped out by a plague.

Ancient Celt (I think? might be Moors or some other Eastern-European) had special ritual trees as part of their religion. When other societies muscled in on their lands removing these trees as part of missionary work or outright oppression was so disrespectful that it often caused the locals to riot.

There is a documented case of a pine tree being able to survive and grow inside a human lung cavity.

that's all I got before I need to actually start looking stuff up

>>52457304
I once threw a bigger version of the D&D Monster "wolf in sheep´s clothing" at my players.

An underground plant monster so big it completely devoured the water around a small village. Emptied the village´s water reserve inside the well. The hunger for water drives it forward underground.

using tremorsense it noticed people above (villagers) it sent vines above to attack the villagers to suck out the water in their bodies.

now comes the "W.i.s.c."-part. The vines grew through the people´s bodies and used the human corpses as bait to attract other victims. playing the corpses like puppets.

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>>52457304
I've always had a soft spot for the yellow musk creeper in D&D. It's a parasitic plant that uses its pollen to mesmerise creatures and lure them closer, then eats their brains and plants a seed in their head to reanimate them as a zombie. If the seed matures, the zombie wanders off to sprout into a new creeper.

I had a game where the wizard got too close so the rest of the party lassoed him to drag him away without getting into range of its musk puffs.

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>>52461894

Not OP but fuck me, dude, color me intrigued.

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>>52457304
>plant monsters

>>52461894
>Ancient Celt (I think? might be Moors or some other Eastern-European)
Is the rest of your info the same quality?

>>52457304
There is a fungus whose spores is one of the fastest thing on earth.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1i3scr_bbc-richard-hammonds-invisible-worlds-1of3-speed-limits-hdtv_tech
start at 39 :44

>>52461894
Surprisingly you're a bit off the mark about the bananas. That species still survives, but it's no longer commercially viable in the west.
The bit about the candy is dead on though.

>>52462136
fine

Pomegranates are a sacred fruit, often either granting power in warfare or just general good fortune.

The "golden apple" in the famous greek myth was probably a tomato

Pineapples feature prominently in Victorian artwork (even gravestones) because it was literally a luxurious fruit. People would buy a pineapple and display it on their mantelpiece, it was so fascinating that it would stay their mantelpiece until it had become an unrecognizable mass of rot

Mushrooms sometimes naturally sprout in a circle, people call them Fairy Rings

Morning Glory seeds are mildly psychotropic. Eating an entire bag of seeds can cause a high similar to acid.

Cacao beans are an obscenely picky plant to grow. Cacao bean was also so desired that in some area oppressed natives were paid entirely in Cacao beans (I may be mixing these up with Tobacco but you get the idea)

Poppy plants are valued because the plant naturally produces a fluid containing heroin (the material is more commonly known as opium gum). the harvesting process involves scoring the seed pod of a poppy flower and letting the sap bleed and congeal overnight. This process can be done multiple times per plant and is still done by hand today, their is currently no mechanized way to harvest opium gum.

Saffron is a highly valuable spice because it is made of the stigmas of a the saffron plant. Iran currently produces over 90% of the world's saffron supply. The yield per plant is so small and the demand so high, 1 pound of saffron costs ~$1500.

Palm tree sap ferments absurdly quickly, to the point that you could tap the tree for sap, let it sit for a couple hours, then get drunk off your ass on palm tree liquor. It can't be bottled and sold because after about a week the sap ferments into vinegar.

"Ice wine" is a variety of wine in which the fruit to be fermented into wine is allowed to freeze in the first frost and ferment slightly while still on the vine.

>>52462225
I'm operating from memory, so I've probably got some facts wrong. I didn't bother googling since it would take to long. If you have the right information by all means please correct me.

>>52461894
>There is a tribe in the Amazon (I might have the location wrong) whose staple food is a fruit which acts as a natural contraceptive. Use of this fruit as a staple has gone on so long the people have no knowledge of intercourse as a way to reproduce and as such have developed interesting social habits around sex.

What? How the hell does the tribe continue? Where do they get babies from?

>>52464476
the contraceptive isn't 100% perfect so they still get pregnant, just at a reduced rate with low enough frequency that they never connected having sex with getting pregnant.

>>52464505
Ah, ok.

>>52457351

Holy shit! How'd that evolve?

>>52461894
And now the current most popular cultivar of banana is facing a similar issue with some fungus.

>>52462300
>Pomegranates are a sacred fruit, often either granting power in warfare or just general good fortune.
The fruit of knowledge in the garden of eden may have been a pomegranate too.

It's not just because of what it is that saffron is so expensive but that the plant has been selected to overaccentuate its reproductive parts(the spice) so much that it can no longer sexually reprodece naturally and needs manual human assistance.