Flora et Fauna: What about the plants of Earth?

Image courtesy of Pexels.com

Dear Reader,

I enjoy creating the concept of exotic plants and animals. At the same time, I am not a botanist and I am not in the profession of creating worlds entirely whole cloth. As such, I do use many familiar plants from our world, Earth, in my fantasy world. I treat the exotic plants I create as interesting niche plants that grow where similar flora would be prevalent.

I try to keep things as logical as possible. I have two reasons for this. First is because it makes my life easier writing "They were sitting beneath the elm trees." and letting the sentence lie as it is. If I had to describe every single type of tree, plant, and creature that the characters encountered, I would never get as far as writing anything about my plot.

My second reason is because it is easier for my readers to move through the story as they encounter that which is familiar to them. I then only must describe things that would not be familiar such as archaic textile manufacturing or the workings of a medieval grain mill, if it is relevant to my plot. I have fun with the concept of creating new and wonderful things. It is part of the reason why I spin, knit, crochet, and otherwise work with my hands when I am not writing.

The fantastical elements like the plants that can not possibly exist in this world are there to embellish the story and remind you that I am not writing something that is set within Earth's history.