Journal of Geek Studies jgeekstudies.org Floral gigantism in the Pokémon world Lucas C. Marinho1 & Liming Cai2 1 Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil. Email: lc.marin- [email protected] 2 Department of Botany & Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California, USA. Email: lim- [email protected] With more than 260,000 species, flower- Bellsprout (#069), the drought-adapted Cac- ing plants represent one of the most spec- nea (#331), and the giant Vileplume (#045). tacular radiations on Earth, and provide The critters in the latter’s evolutionary line, enormous value to humankind (Stevens, in particular, represent early examples of 2017). In the Pokémon universe, howev- Grass-type Pokémon that exhibit a suite of er, plant-derived Pokémon, or Grass-type distinctive features such as the absence of Pokémon, are surprisingly scarce compared green pigments in evolved forms and the to Pokémon resembling vertebrates or ar- presence of poisonous chemical compounds thropods (Le Vaillant, 2020). Representative (that is, they are also Poison-type). Grass-type Pokémon feature a number of charismatic flora including the carnivorous There are four Pokémon in this evolu- Oddish’s evolutionary line (images extracted from Bulbapedia). 43 Marinho & Cai tionary line: Oddish (#043), Gloom (#044), parasitic plant family Rafflesiaceae exhib- Vileplume, and Bellossom (#182), which it extraordinarily unique characteristics represent four distinct stages on a chain of compared to other free-living plants. They gradual metamorphosis (the latter two be- do not have identifiable stems, leaves and ing mutually exclusive). roots but rely on the tropical grapevine hosts Tetrastigma for nutrients and water. These Pokémon are found throughout all The host-derived energy supports the pro- regions in the Pokémon world except Alola duction of the world’s largest flower in the (Bulbapedia, 2021). Oddish is the juvenile species Rafflesia arnoldii. In sum, both Raf- stage, characterized by its blue body and flesiaceae and Vileplume have a number green leaves. It metamorphoses (“evolves” of life history traits that are otherwise rare in game terms) into Gloom, which has red among their relatives. Here, we present a leaves and a dull brown perianth with comprehensive analysis of the morpho- white spots. The change in leaf color sug- logical, physiological and ecological char- gest the transition to a heterotrophic life- acteristics of the Grass/Poison Pokémon style (non-photosynthetic) and the evolu- Vileplume and the parasitic plant species tion of a perianth may attract pollinators for Rafflesia arnoldii. reproduction. Vilpelume and Bellossom, on the other hand, demonstrate two diverse tracks of metamorphosis from Gloom. In Vileplume, the iconic features from Gloom Methods become even more exaggerated: the peri- anth turns extremely showy and the leaves The morphological and behavioral char- are lost. Bellossom, in contrast, has green acteristics of Vilpelume were collected from leaves and is morphologically and physio- the Pokédex (The Pokémon Company, logically more similar to Oddish than to its 2021) and Bulbapedia (2021). For the plant precursor, Gloom. family Rafflesiaceae and the species R. ar- noldii, morphological descriptions were ob- tained from the scientific literature. Vileplume Vileplume in Pocket Monsters (image extracted from Bulbapedia). Compared to the limited diversity of Grass-type Pokémon, flowering plants are crucial and significant components of Earth’s ecosystems. They supply food for Vileplume (image extracted from Bulbapedia). animals and provide habitable shelters for all living organisms. Among them, the Journal of Geek Studies 8(2): 43-49 (2021). Floral gigantism in Pokémon Vileplume (Japanese: ラフレシア [Ra- 2021). Color variations are found in isolated fureshia]) is a Grass/Poison Pokémon from populations. For example, the Vileplume on Generation I. It evolves from Gloom if the Pinkan Island have a pink body (Bulbape- player uses a Leaf Stone. Vileplume usual- dia, 2021), possibly due to the accumulation ly has a purplish body and bears five giant of carotenoids from their diet. Populations red petals with white spots, which give it from Valencia Island are even more unusu- its fame of having the largest petals in the al, they do not have white spots on red pet- Pokémon world (The Pokémon Company, als, but instead have orange petals with red rings (Bulbapedia, 2021). Alternately-colored Vileplume specimens from Pinkan Island (above) and Valencia Island (below), both from Or- ange Archipelago (images from the Pokémon TV series, extracted from Bulbapedia, 2021). 45 Marinho & Cai Rafflesiaceae era: Rafflesia, Rhizanthes and Sapria, all of which are endemic (restricted) to southern Rafflesiaceae is a family of leafless, China, northeast India, Bhutan, Thailand, rootless, and non-photosynthetic parasit- Malaysia, and western Indonesia (Meijer, ic plants belonging to the order Malpighi- 1997; Barcelona et al., 2009; Bendiksby et al., ales (Nikolov & Davis, 2017), which also 2010). These plants are specialized parasites includes cassava, castor bean, flax, pop- on Tetrastigma, which is a group of liana lars, and rubber trees. The family consists species in the grapevine family (Vitaceae). of ca. 40 species distributed in three gen- Rafflesia sp. (image extracted from Flickr; Martin Sercombe, 2010; CC BY 4.0). Species of Rafflesiaceae live entirely in- Morphological similarities side the host and only emerge when they are ready to reproduce. The flower releases Floral gigantism — Both Vileplume and a foul odor to recruit carrion flies for pol- R. arnoldii are characterized by scarlet petals lination (Patiño et al., 2002). Among these with white spots. In addition to the overall two dozen species, the most charismatic is similarity in the coloration, both Vileplume R. arnoldii, which produces the largest flow- and R. arnoldii keep the record of flow- er in the world. This species is the national er size in the Pokémon world and the real flower of Indonesia and it even appears on world. Vileplume can reach up to 1.2 meter the Malaysian Ringgit. high, weighing 18.6 kilograms (Bulbapedia, 2021). Rafflesia arnoldii, on the other hand, can grow to a diameter of around one me- ter, weighing up to 11 kilograms (Cunning- ham, 2002). Journal of Geek Studies 8(2): 43-49 (2021). Floral gigantism in Pokémon Sexual dimorphism — Both Vileplume and R. arnoldii are dioecious, meaning that the male and female blossoms appear on sepa- rate plants. Female Vileplume have fewer, but larger white spots on their petals com- pared to the male (The Pokémon Company, 2021). Flowers of R. arnoldii have five sepals (not petals; Nikolov et al., 2013) and a cen- Malaysian banknote of 10 Ringgit (image extracted tral chamber structure. Male flowers have from https://www.numiscollection.com/). anthers situated underneath the disk with- in the central chamber while female flowers have styles instead. Rafflesia arnoldii (image extracted from Flickr; Sumeet Luktuke, 2017; CC BY 2.0). Physiological differences speed via the Chlorophyll ability. This pho- tosynthetic pigment chlorophyll converts Carnivorous versus parasitic — Though the solar energy to chemical energy. On the similar in morphology, Vileplume differs contrary, R. arnoldii has completely lost the fundamentally from R. arnoldii in its life ability to photosynthesize (Nikolov et al., history strategy. Vileplume is photosyn- 2014). It is even hypothesized that it has lost thetic and carnivorous, while R. arnoldii its chloroplast (Molina et al., 2014; Cai et is non-photosynthetic and relies entirely al., 2021). However, the unique green color on its host for nutrients. When exposed to from the photosynthetic pigment chloro- bright sunlight, Vileplume can increase its phyll is not easily observed in Vileplume. 47 Marinho & Cai Only the shiny version has a green body gers potent allergic reactions in its prey (and orange petals). It is therefore possi- (The Pokémon Company, 2021). In peak ble that chlorophyll only exists in small seasons, Vileplume can release a tremen- quantities in the vast majority of Vileplume dous amount of pollen such that it is sur- populations and other photosynthetic pig- rounded by a yellow cloud of pollen. With ments such as carotenoids play a major role every step, Vileplume shakes out a tremen- in photosynthesis instead. The carnivorous dous amount of toxic pollen. This noxious habits of Vileplume may also be an outcome pollen is similar to the foul volatiles emitted of adaptive evolution in the face of reduced by R. arnoldii to attract pollinators. But un- photosynthetic ability. like Vileplume, R. arnoldii uses its decompo- sition-mimicking volatiles to attract carrion Vegetative organs — Vileplume, along flies for deceptive pollination (Beaman et with many other Grass-type Pokémon, al., 1988; Bänziger, 1991). Moreover, in Vile- learns the Razor Leaf offensive move, in plume the propagation of the toxic pollen which leaf blades are launched at high is achieved by shaking petals, but in R. ar- speed and cause damage to opponents. Raf- noldii it is hypothesized that the emission of flesia arnoldii, however, have lost all identifi- the odor is facilitated by raising their tem- able leaves because they are non-photosyn- perature above environmental average (Pa- thetic. The entire plant grows as a mass of tiño et al., 2000, 2002). Combined with the thread-like strands within the host before white and red pattern on the petal and hair- they