Cryptobotany Fiction: Flora Curiosa
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 6th, 2008
Chad Arment is the editor of a new anthology, Flora Curiosa: Cryptobotany, Mysterious Fungi, Sentient Trees, and Deadly Plants in Classic Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Flora Curiosa is an anthology of 20 classic short stories involving all kinds of weird plants and fungi, including the man-eating varieties. The stories he reprints are the precursors and often directly influence contemporary “killer plant” science fiction and fantasy books and films. It is a unique collection for those wishing to extend their cryptobotany fiction library.
Arment’s gathered stories are:
“Rappaccini’s Daughter” (1844), Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The American’s Tale” (1880), Arthur Conan Doyle
“The Man-Eating Tree” (1881), Phil Robinson
“The Balloon Tree” (1883), Edward Page Mitchell
“The Flowering of the Strange Orchid” (1894), H. G. Wells
“The Treasure in the Forest” (1894), H. G. Wells
“The Purple Pileus” (1896), H. G. Wells
“The Purple Terror” (1898), Fred M. White
“A Vine on a House” (1905), Ambrose Bierce
“Professor Jonkin’s Cannibal Plant” (1905), Howard R. Garis
“The Willows” (1907), Algernon Blackwood
“The Voice in the Night” (1907), William Hope Hodgson
“The Orchid Horror” (1911), John Blunt
“The Man Whom the Trees Loved” (1912), Algernon Blackwood
“The Pavilion” (1915), E. Nesbit
“The Sumach” (1919), Ulric Daubeny
“The Green Death” (1920), H. C. McNeile
“Si Urag of the Tail” (1923), Oscar Cook
“Green Thoughts: A Story” (1931), John Collier
“The Walk to Lingham” (1934), Lord Dunsany
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As it isn’t in this book I also recommend Manly Wade Wellman’s “Come Into My Parlor”? as an excellent botanical nightmare generator.
I didn’t even know there was a Conan Doyle story called ‘The American’s Tale’. Obviously my collection of his stories is not as complete as I thought.
A decent novel with some weird plants in it is “The Ruins”. The movie didn’t do the book justice, I thought. This looks like a cool list of stories, and I’m always curious when cryptobotany articles pop up on the site.
oooooh, The Willows is one of my favorite creepy stories, right up there with The Rocking Horse Winner and “Repent, Harliquin!” said the TickTockMan. Sounds like a book I need to buy.