#interactives

the last song i listened to –

Origanum vulgare

“Common oregano”

Overall pretty great depiction of common oregano. It’s an introduced species in North America, native to Eurasia and the middle east.

The leaves are appropriately simple, spaced alternately along the stem, but lack the more defined venation often present in real life. Compliments on the flowers, too; they’re accurately depicted as umbels with darker pink bracts below the light pink flowers, with a protruding stigma and styles. While somewhat lacking in definition, if you look closely you can see the three lobes on each cup-shaped flower, characteristic of this plant’s family Lamiaceae. I wasn’t able to get a good enough look in-game but it doesn’t look like this rendering shows a square stem, another characteristic of the Lamiales.

What’s interesting about this plant is its relative obscurity at this time in this part of the country; though lacking a specific date of arrival, it was introduced with settlers from europe but stayed localized in cultivation around the east coast, where italian food was popular with immigrants. It wasn’t cultivated widely until WWII soldiers returning from italy brought demand for italian food to the forefront of american cuisine. But that’s a whole other story. The fact that Arthur can collect these all over the map at this point in history is a bit anachronistic unfortunately.

“send  ⛄️  for  our  muses  to  build  a  snowman  together” bro I LOVED coloring Seb’s hair gradients are fun @askgrittyblossom

Museum:  Netherlands Open Air Museum

Year: 2018

Achillea millefolium

“Yarrow”

Achillea millefolium is a plant naturalized pretty much everywhere in the northern hemisphere, with specific subspecies and ecotypes in almost every biome you can think of. Given this, most native species of yarrow (ie, non-cultivated) are white. Why on earth are the game’s flowers red? Really. It’s a mystery that will haunt me to my grave. Besides that, this one’s another banger by the dev team! The plant looks stunning, with its umbels of densely clustered florets, its small cauline leaves, and large basal leaves bearing its namesake feathery, fernlike appearance. It’s also widely distributed ingame just like real life, and also harvestable for its health benefits. Yarrow irl has a wide variety of volatile oils, anti-inflammatory compounds, and natural acids good for digestion and infection. Its also been used historically to staunch bleeding.

Dudleya cymosa

"Canyon liveforever"

Here’s a plant I was surprised to see in game! It can be found on Arthur's bedside table in a little terrarium jar and nowhere else (that I know of) in game. Dudleya cymosa is a local native where I am, and Arthur actually references the fact that it’s a California endemic in conversation with Mary Beth over a game of dominoes.

The ingame rendering is gorgeous; its rosette of succulent leaves are curled slightly upward and pinkish, which its real life counterpart often does in more sun-soaked locations to retain moisture and protect itself from sun exposure. The Dudleya ingame is flowering, which happens around April-July depending on local microclimates. Given that rdr2 takes place from May to July, this is perfectly accurate! Its infloresence is a near-perfect recreation; two infloresences sprout from the sides of the rosette of leaves on a pinkish red stem bearing small cauline leaves of the same color. Its cup-shaped involucres are bright orange with yellow interiors, bearing five to six tightly fused petals which open into star shapes at the tips. Although the bracts of the game's plant don't cup the base of the petals as much as they do in real life, it's perfectly fine. In structure, coloration, and even as a characterization tool, this plant is an absolute knockout.