Elanthian Flora Guide/Low Brush and Bushes

Elanthian Flora Guide: Low Brush and Bushes is an Official GemStone IV Document, and it is protected from editing.

Follow the name link for a description of that lichen,moss, of fungi:

IMT=Icemule Trace, KD=Kharam Dzu, MH=Mist Harbor, PTP=Pinefar, RR=River's Rest, SOL=Solhaven, TI=Ta'Illistim, TV=Ta'Vaalor, WL=Wehnimer's Landing, ZL=Zul Logoth

Low Brush and bushes	Uses	IMT	KD	MH	PTP	RR	SOL	TI	TV	WL	ZL
Bearberry, Alpine	n/a	X			X
Bilberry, Dwarf	n/a							X	X		X
Blueberry	Favored to eat fresh off the bush or baked into pies, tarts, and muffins. Makes a good jam, too.	X		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Boxwood	n/a						X	X	X
Currants	The berries are used in jams and baked goods, and often flavor sauces and beverages.	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Elderberry	Sometimes used to make wine or preserves	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Gooseberry	Good for baking or preserves.	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Grumbleberry	n/a	X
Heliotrope	n/a						X
Hemp	n/a					X		X	X
Holly	Often used as a decoration, especially around solstice holidays.							X	X	X
Kerria, Miniature	n/a									X
Orris	n/a									X
Sagebrush	n/a					X
Sassafras	Good brewed into a tea, or made into a syrup that can flavor a variety of brewed beverages.	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Smastan	Often, smastan berries are used for punch drinks and desserts or other sweets. One particular bush seems to have some rather odd properties to it, but it is in no way typical for the species.									X
Snowberry	n/a	X									X
Thanot	n/a					X
Thornberry	n/a	X
Thrakwood	n/a						x
Traesharm	n/a									X
Viburnum	n/a									X
Widowwood	n/a
Winterberry	n/a	X

Description

Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

B

Alpine Bearberry

Bearberry, Apline: Mat-forming shrubs, especially native to temperate zones, bearing small leathery leaves, white or pinkish urn-shaped flowers, and red berrylike fruits.

Dwarf Bilberry

Bilberry, Dwarf: See Blueberry (below). This smaller version of the plant produces a smaller, more tart berry.

Blueberry : White to reddish, urn-shaped or tubular flowers and edible blue to blue-black berries, amid small green oval leaves.

Boxwood

Boxwood: An ornamental, dark evergreen shrub, usually trimmed into hedges or topiary. Rare varieties can bear varigated yellow and green foliage.

C

Currants: A deciduous, spineless shrub native chiefly to temperate climate zones, bearing flowers in racemes with edible, variously-colored berries. Thought to be a member of the graper family, as the dried berries resemble tiny raisins, with a less sweet flavor.

E

Elderberry: The small, edible, purplish-black fruit of the common elder.

G

Gooseberry: A spiny shrub with lobed leaves, greenish flowers, and edible translucent, greenish to yellow or red berries.

Grumbleberry: A dwarven variety of berry, similar to the blackberry, but much larger and sweeter. The thorns along the vines are significantly longer than the tiny prickles of the blackberry, possibly lending to the name of fruit.

H

Heliotrope: Small, highly fragrant purplish flowers amid a foliage of dark green.

Hemp: A plant with fibrous skin or bark, which is used for making cloth and cordage.

Holly: Trees or shrubs usually having bright red berries and glossy evergreen leaves with spiny margins.

K

Kerria, Miniature: A small shrub with slender green stems, often pruned into decorative shapes.

O

Orris: A variety of iris with white blossoms and a fragrant rootstock often ground and used in potpourris and sachets.

S

Sagebrush: An aromatic shrub that grows in arid regions of temperate zones and has silver-green leaves with large clusters of small white flower heads. When affected by drought, the shrubs drop all their foliage and turn brown, then detach from their roots, allowing the wind to blow them around.

Sassafras: A deciduous tree with irregularly lobed leaves and aromatic bark, leaves, and branches.

Smastan: A very rare, small ornamental bush that grows very low to the ground, with red, edible berries and waxy green leaves. While wild speculation and tall tales surround the origin of the term "smastan," the reality is much more prosaic. It's a polyglot amalgamation, combining elements of the gnomish words for "sugary," and "sweet," as well as the bardic guild's term for "sweet drink," the latter typically referring to a fermented drink coveted after performances. It's believed that fermented smastan berry drinks had extra recovery properties for parched bards. Modern bards do not appear to have such a preference, however, and the Bard's Guild is stoically silent on the matter.

Snowberry:A shrub bearing small pinkish flowers and white berries.

T

Thanot: A sturdy, bluish shrub that grows in rocky soil, it is hardy to even high altitudes and in southern dry climates. The thanot has long enjoyed its reputation to protect against enchantment. It is still a practice in remote areas to place sprigs of thanot over the main door of the house and also worn on the person to ward off false enchantment -- the evil eye. The shrub is small, seldom as much as forty feet tall, and usually misshapen. Thanots produce vivid red berries, but possess long, poisonous barbs that make gathering the fruit a hazard. Examine a red thanot berry and you will discover that unlike many other fruits that bear just a round hollow or dimple opposite their stalks, it carries a tiny, five-pointed star, or pentagram -- the ancient magical symbol of protection.

Thornberry: Pale pink berries grow within a thicket of thorny vines, making their sweet treasure difficult to harvest. Additionally, the prickly underside of the leafy foliage adds hinderance.

Thrakwood: Grows in and around Solhaven. See Thrakwood for details.

Traesharm: These low berry bushes are often used to make decorative hedges, more prized for the showy green and white variated foliage than for the violet fruits.

V

Viburnum: Potentially a quite large shrub or small tree, viburnum may reach three times the height of a giantkin, and be several feet wide at maturity. The leaves are smooth, bright green, and arranged on green stems in opposite fashion. A healthy plant gives the impression of being quite robust and dense. Very mature specimens that have not been pruned will look more open and tree-like. Tiny white flowers are held in great panicles in spring, and are pleasingly fragrant. Berries are drupes that turn from red to black and are attractive to birds.

W

Widowwood: Blue-black wood that can have a rose, purple, or crimson sheen to it depending on how it is cut and polished, the widowwood is a rare shrub. Possessing a sturdy trunk, its wood can be used for carving in small quantities. For example, one might build a door out of pieces of widowwood, or one might make small carvings, but one would never use it to build a house. The widowwood grows best in dim and dank swamps and that ilk. Silver-backed, deep green leaves cluster in sets of five along spindly branches. At the center of each leaf cluster, a tiny and lop-sided white flower will bloom, which in turn yields a pale blue berry. These tiny flowers and berries produce a beautiful scent, and this is where the widowwood gets its name. Men over the ages have died while seeking the scent to add to perfumes or to test for alchemical or healing properties, drowned in the quick bogs the shrub grows near, never to be seen again. The widowwood has only recently been rediscovered in some treacherous bogs past the Lake of Shadowed Sorrows, and small quantities have filtered into the more populous areas of Elanthia.

Winterberry: A medium-sized shrub cascading with showy red berries.