Flora & Fauna: Ramblings.

Dear Reader,

Did you know that potatoes and tomatoes are related to deadly nightshade? Did you know that the upper part of the potato plant is poisonous, as are green potatoes? There is a plant that is indirectly related to peas that looks almost identical to them but is really toxic. Or that there is a plant that looks like a giant Queen Anne's Lace plant that is so horrifically toxic that to get rid of it you have to rip it out and pour toxins into the ground to kill off the roots. And when you burn it, you have to stay upwind and out of the smoke or you'll have the problems that come with coming into contact with the plant, including stuff like anaphylaxis and blindness. (That one's called Hog Weed and is an invasive plant in my region.)

There's a garden in London that is full of poisonous plants. They don't allow visitors in unless they're wearing safety gear because just touching some of these plants can do horrible things to you. I don't need to invent monstrous plants if the biome of Evandar and the world at large is similar to that of Earth. I can just drop some horrific plants from our world in there along with the benign ones and let my characters deal with it. It makes for less work in world building.

Being able to pick and choose what familiar or less than familiar plants from Earth pop up in the fantasy environment is a luxury. Adding in these plants that have a basis in the real world does two things. It assists in the suspension of disbelief because an oak tree is an oak tree (except for when you're dealing with poison oak, which looks similar to a sapling but isn't the same). The exotic plants can pop up for a bit of flavor and spice in the story if it makes sense to include them, like fireweed as kindling and a medicinal product.

Inventing a whole body of plants for the world and only using a few of them is a tiring exercise. If creating a legendarium is your goal, that helps towards it. It is, however, going to take time away from writing the story. You have to balance your world building desires with your story goals. Perhaps working on your legendarium is how you generate ideas for moving your plot forward. If that's the case, more power to you and good luck with the process. Hopefully, your legendarium is more organized than mine.