On 22 Jul 2016 14:20, "Jeffrey Schwartz" <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I would _really_ like to see some plant articles.
>
> It's an area where I'm skimpy, and I'd really like to know more.
>
> Please, Timothy?

Well, I've not *quite* given up yet.   There is quite a good Wikipedia article on alien (science fiction) plants if folk need something quickly.  I was also inspired by a thing in White Dwarf on plants in Metamorphosis Alpha - though it tends to be a bit mushroom obsessed.

One of the difficulties is making sure they're interesting.  It's easy enough, as my encyclopedia shows, to have a million dull - if very pretty - things which for typical Traveller purposes would just be one line descriptive background at best.  I'm aiming at things which would be of interest to Travellers because they're:
- dangerous and need to be avoided
- valuable and need to be collected
- tricky to transport and need to be molly coddled
- subtly present difficulties which need to be known about (eg the hexipuffs in Three Blind Mice)

Actually,  those last are a good example of what I was after.  Something (moderately) interesting to describe, something not particularly dangerous but can cause problems and something that isn't necessarily encountered in the wilderness.  As it happens they were directly inspired by three librarian ladies I know on Twitter who were talking about knitting or crochet or something and used the word (was it in humour or are they real things?  I can't recall) and I immediately thought the word would be great for a creature/plant.  I credited them.

tc