PLANTS
Bill and Ben, Bill and Ben, Bill and Ben, Bill and Ben, flower pot men.
Barometz -- Blood Flower -- Death Beauty -- Death Flower -- Devil Flower -- Leg Eater -- Mandrake -- Vampire Thorn -- Wood Eyes
In the middle ages, travellers visiting the East believed that the tufts of cotton growing on cotton plants were actually tiny lambs. These folkloric creatures were known as barometz or vegetable lambs.
IMAGES: Image of a barometz from Claude Duret's 1605 book "Histoire Admirable des Plantes"
-- The cotton tufts responsible for the myth
The most well-known example of a monstrous flower that I know of is Audrey Jr. from the 1960 movie Little Shop of Horrors (renamed "Audrey II" in the better-known 1986 remake). Audrey was described as a Venus' flytrap, despite looking nothing like one. S/he didn't resemble these FF flowers either, which appear to be based on the hybiscus.
IMAGE: A pink hybiscus
There are various types of carnivorous plant (the most well-known being the Venus flytrap and pitcher plant), but none eat humans, or even human legs. Instead, they feed on insects and other small animals, such as frogs and sometimes rats. The leg eater is a generic thorny plant which resembles the corkscrew plant.
IMAGE: A corkscrew plant
The mandrake is a southern European plant with a shape that, like the barometz, inspired some bizarre folklore. The root loosely resembles a human figure, and so it was believed that mandrakes were sentient creatures that, if uprooted, would let out a scream - this scream was said to kill anyone who heard it. According to folklore, anyone who wanted to uproot a mandrake had to do so by tying a dog to the leaves, covering their ears and enticing the dog to run with meat. Once uprooted the mandrake could be used in magic or as an aphrodisiac. There are references to the latter usage in the Bible (Genesis 30:14-16) and William Shakespeare's play Henry IV Part 2.
IMAGES: A mandrake, placed in a bowl of milk as part of a ritual -- Illustration of a mandrake from Kurtz Büchlin's 1561 book Apollinaris
While thorns don't suck blood, they can obviously cause bleeding. This trait was most likely the inspiration for the vampire thorn.
IMAGE: Some thorns
Wood witj eyes, hm? Creepy. Read my comics.
Back to...BAROMETZ
FF3's barometz doesn't look like cotton or a lamb, and is closer to the mandrake.BLOOD FLOWER, DEATH BEAUTY, DEATH FLOWER, DEVIL FLOWER
LEG EATER
MANDRAKE
With these beliefs prevalent, a mandrake must have been a rare sight in the middle ages. This explains why medieval depictions of the plant are exaggerated to the point of being ridiculous - they were drawn as humans with leaves coming out of their heads.VAMPIRE THORN
WOODEYES
INDIVIDUAL ENTRIES
BY GAME
GROUPS
