Heartblossom
Colloquial names: Mercury Drinker, Madness Stem
Physical Description: Heartblossom is one of the only plants currently known on Azeroth that cannot grow in Azerothian soil. This plant grows in the sunless, windless, and waterless elemental plane of Deepholm, and can be found nowhere else in known existence. Curiously, Heartblossom cannot survive in environments and conditions outside of the elemental plane. When trying to take root in the various types of Azerothian soil, the plant only survives for a recorded thirty six hours before wilting. The theory surrounding it is that the chemical compositions found in the soil and rock in Deepholm have no match to ones on Azeroth. The plant’s primary sources of nourishment are veins of liquid mercury, which are quite abundant there. The plant itself is beautiful and alien, having huge, dinner-plate sized orange blooms that grow in two tiers of frilly orange and red petals. The flowers are anemone-like, and seem to “wave” as the petals undulate in and out. It is thought that this movement earned them their name, as it is somewhat resemblant of a beating heart. Under the plants stems are a nest of yellow and green leaves, tinged read and the ends and sides. The flowers have long, white, and fragrant filaments, attracting insects to feed on their nectar.
Described Usage: Heartblossom is, unfortunately, known to be used as a poison. The mercury that cradles the bloom to life kisses its petals and leaves. In a high enough dosage, this can be incredibly lethal. It is not a poison one uses when they wish their victim to suffer- it is a poison one uses when they wish their victim to die. For this reason, any Heartblossom collected should be stored safely and innocuously. If one can manage to ignore this rather sinister knowledge, they may learn that Heartblossom flowers can be used to create some truly wonderful potions. Therazane’s earth elementals imparted some knowledge about the bloom to elementalists in the Temple of Earth. One of the things recovered is the knowledge of how to transmute various stones. Combined with Volatile Life, Cinderbloom, and sometimes Azshara’s veil, once can create some useful alchemist stones. These are things that simply require experimentation, as each alchemist needs a different stone. The herb can also be used to make two notable potions. The rough translation gathered from the elementals was “two rock, five stone.” This made little sense until two Heartblossom blooms were combined with seawater, producing a deep purple tonic that made the skin resemble that of a rock. The five blossom potion is more complex, requiring seawater gathered from any point in the ocean where no land can be seen. When combined, the imbiber is teleported to Deepholm. This rather surprising result led the elementalists to realize they had mistranslated the elemental’s words: they were not saying “stone”, but “home”.
