#stinking corpse lilly

Vileplume miku marked

Not only are Gloom, Vileplume and Bellossom the first of the included Pokemon we come to not to fit The Rule, but they are also the first Pokemon we’ve reached that require us to split the evolution lines.

I was a bit conflicted about doing this at first but, as Gloom, Vileplume and Bellossom are based off of a Stinking Corpse Lily (the very reason Bulbasaur’s line doesn’t have a post on this blog) including them just didn’t feel right. Oddish however is based on a Mandrake, which although not native to the UK, has a lot of mythology surrounding it that very much does come up throughout our history.

So I decided that, as earlier generations had some Pokemon without their earlier evolution, and other Pokemon without later evolutions, in the fiction of Pokemon there are obviously some regions where Pokemon evolution lines are just like that. And so I decided Galar would just be one of those places and split the evolution line right up.

(Of course another alternative could be giving Gloom, Vileplume and Bellossom a Galar form, perhaps a Tudor Rose as they’re a similar shape, but I’m no artist and I’m just dealing with the Pokemon I have).

Now that that the explanation’s out of the way lets get on with the post:

Stinking Corpse Lilies are only found in the rain forests of Sumatra and in the Malay Archipelago in Borneo. They are also the largest flowers in the world, with a diameter of about 1m (3 foot) and weighing up to 11kg (25 pounds). Despite its large size however, it’s actually a parasite, relying on the Tetrastigma Vine to act as host and provide with roots, leaves, stem and chlorophyll.

These flowers start off as large, cabbage sized buds on the root of its host, and takes about 9 months to blossom. The flower itself only lasts for three to four days before collapsing into a slimy black mess.

Along with White Jasmines and Moon Orchids, the Stinking Corpse Lily is one of Indonesia’s three national flowers. Despite this status however it is sadly considered threatened or endangered in all of its habitats.