This article lists the vast array of fictional plant life found in the Edge Chronicles

The Edge Chronicles

The Edge Chronicles is a young-adult fantasy novel series by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. It consists of three trilogies, plus three additional books, and others . Originally published in the United Kingdom, this series has since been published in the United States, Canada and Australia. To...

, a series of young adult

Young adult literature

Young-adult fiction or young adult literature , also juvenile fiction, is fiction written for, published for, or marketed to adolescents and young adults, roughly ages 14 to 21. The Young Adult Library Services of the American Library Association defines a young adult as "someone between the...

 books set in a fantasy world

Fantasy world

A fantasy world is a fictional universe used in fantasy novels and games. Typical worlds involve magic or magical abilities and often, but not always, either a medieval or futuristic theme...

 created by Paul Stewart

Paul Stewart (writer)

Paul Stewart is a writer of children's books, best known for the bestselling The Edge Chronicles, the Free Lance novels and the Far Flung Adventures series which are written in collaboration with the illustrator Chris Riddell...

 and Chris Riddell

Chris Riddell

Chris Riddell is a British illustrator and occasional writer of children's literature, and a political cartoonist for The Observer. He has won the Kate Greenaway Medal twice and the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize seven times....

. For information on the books themselves, please see the Edge Chronicles main article.

For further information about the fictional world of the Edge, please see the similar article, Animals of the Edge Chronicles.

B

• Barleyrice - Possibly similar to barley or rice, used commonly as a foodcrop.
• Bloodoak - Bloodoak is a carnivorous plant that grows to the size of a tree. It resembles a large tree with a gaping maw at its summit filled with many wooden "teeth". It can voluntarily swallow or spit out its prey. It ejects bones, but draws blood to its roots, where young female termagant trogs drink it as part of their "Blooding Ceremony" which turns them termagent. Bloodoak wood is very strong when dead, but extremely flexible when alive, adding to the sinister animal-like aspect. When burned, it screams violently. Bloodoak wood is the most buoyant wood on the Edge, and therefore highly desired for building sky-ships. Bloodoaks co-operate with the similarly mobile tarry vines to draw in and consume prey. When felling the Bloodoak, the felling party must either "engage" the tarry vine or use bait to distract it (a dishonourable approach) Tem Barkwater
  Tem Barkwater
  Tem Barkwater is a fictional character in the children's book series The Edge Chronicles. He appears in Clash of the Sky Galleons, Beyond the Deepwoods, Stormchaser, and Freeglader. He first appears serving under Wind Jackal on the Galerider and follows Quint after Wind Jackal's death...
  
   was used as tarry vine bait, before being found by Quint
  Quintinius Verginix
  Quintinius Verginix is a fictional character from Paul Stewart's The Edge Chronicles.Usually referred to as Quint or, later, Cloud Wolf, Quint was a Knight Academic and a Sky Pirate Captain...
  
  . Steg Jambles is caught and eaten in Clash of the Sky Galleons
  Clash of the Sky Galleons
  Clash of the Sky Galleons is a children's fantasy novel by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, first published in 2006. It is the ninth volume of The Edge Chronicles and the third of the Quint Saga trilogy; within the stories' own chronology it is the third novel, preceding the Twig Saga and Rook Saga...
  
  . Twig is almost devoured by a bloodoak in Beyond the Deepwoods.
• Blue Pumpkin - Apart from being a blue colour, Blue pumpkins are not mentioned to be any different from normal Earth pumpkins.
• Bristleweed - It is found in purple clumps among the bones lying scattered around bloodoaks (see "bloodoak" above). It is used to make a tea sold to Twig in "Midnight Over Sanctaphrax" in the Great Shryke Slave Market by a gabtroll that told him it would help him find himself.
• Butterblooms - Possibly similar to buttercups or other meadow flowers. They grow in large groups along paths or in hammelhorn grazing pastures.

C

• Copperwood - Like the ironwood tree and the leadwood tree, the copperwood is a non-buoyant tree from the Deepwoods (probably weighing as much as copper).

D

• Dellberry - A red berry used in jelly, as this quote from Stormchaser clearly shows: The sun - large and red and wobbling like an immense bowl of dellberry jelly - had just risen above the horizon. It is unknown whether the berries grow on trees or bushes.
• Darkelm - Probably similar to an elm. The yellow oil that can be extracted from this tree can be used as a salve on prowlgrins' feet to keep them in good condition. The prowlgrins find the oil irresistible, and even wild ones can often be found scratching at its bark.
• Darkroot - Possibly a sort of tuber plant, similar to carrots or parsnips. Can be used to make a poultice to help cure wounds.

G

• Glimmer-onions - Similar to onions, commonly used as a foodcrop.
• Glade-Onions - Similar to onions, one imagines they grow only in glades and pastures.

H

• Hyleberry - A fruit with healing properties, used often by woodtrolls.

• Hairy charlock - Herb with calming properties. The gabtroll in the Great Shryke Slave Market advised Cowlquape Pentepraxis to drink a tea made from hairy charlock because he seemed nervous.

I

• Ironwood - This is obviously the strongest of woods found on the Edge. Gathered by woodtrolls and sky pirates, it resembles a variety of giant pine, standing taller even than Earth redwoods. The wood of an ironwood tree is extremely strong, comparable in strength to iron, and for instance used to craft the lances of the Freeglade Lancers. Stope Boltjaw's artificial jaw is made of ironwood as well. The trees grow a branch every twenty years, and can be used as a beacon by stranded sky-sailors because of their flammable sap.

L

• Leadwood - Like the ironwood tree, and the copperwood, the leadwood is a non-buoyant tree of the edge wood (probably weighing as much as lead).
• Loafsap - A type of bread which is said to be very filling when eaten, making it able to last for weeks.
• Lullabee - A tree that sings almost hypnotically. Feared by woodtrolls because its music may confuse or soporify the listener, but a favored haunt of clairvoyant caterbirds, carnivorous skullpelts, and wise oakelves.
• Lufwood - The lufwood tree is ash-grey and very tall, with a straight trunk devoid of many branches up until the canopy.

Lufwood timber has many unique qualities: it burns with a purple flame, which some find soothing. It is also one of many "buoyant woods" of the Edge, meaning that it becomes lighter than air in certain circumstances and can shoot off like a rocket; therefore it has to be burned in stoves. This attribute has led to certain sky-pirates using the wood in punishments known as "skyfiring": a mutinous person is strapped to a burning piece of lufwood (or any other buoyant wood) and then released to shoot off into open sky, never to return.

Most buoyant wood is also lighter than usual in normal temperatures, so they are often used in the construction of sky-ships. It is known that woodtrolls favour lufwood for use in their stoves and certain rituals.

O

• Oakapple - Similar to apple trees, they have white flowers. The fruit of this trees, called by the same name are very tasty.

P

• Pinecoffee plant - Not much is known about this plant, but in Midnight Over Sanctaphrax there is mention of the "familiar" smell of roasted pinecoffee beans.
• Plateleaf lilies - Similar to lilies, and found in lakes and ponds in the Deepwoods.

R

• Redpine - A pine-like tree that produces red resin, hence its name. It is mentioned in The Lost Barkscrolls.

S

• Sallowdrop - Resembles a weeping willow, grows near water.
• Scentwood - A buoyant wood that, when burned, is highly aromatic.
• Sour-cabbage - Similar to cabbages, but more sour. Commonly used as a foodcrop.
• Speargrass - Similar to some sort of grass.
• Spike-bush - Possibly a spiky species of bush.
• Stinkwood - A wood that is no doubt similar to scentwood, but creates a disgusting smell.
• Sumpwood - Little is known about the tree itself, but sumpwood is invaluable to wood-flight. The wood is silky and golden, and is unique in being the only wood that is buoyant enough to fly without being burned. Still, when not coated with mole-glue varnish, its level of buoyancy is very unstable and susceptible to small variations in temperature and humidity. The wood makes for a valuable component of skycraft.

T

• Tarry-vine - A type of animalistically mobile creeper, the tarry vine works with the bloodoak tree to capture prey. It appears to move using liquid pressure. When it is cut, the part that is still connected to the roots will sprout three new vines, much like a hydra. To prevent this from happening you must sear the fresh cut end with flame, also like a hydra.
• Tripweed - A plant eaten primarily by woodtrolls, but enjoyed by others also. Can be pickled. In Midnight Over Sanctaphrax, a search of the Undertown boom-docks yields a drinking pit that serves the cloddertrog favourite of tripweed beer. This foul-smelling beverage is brewed by fermenting tripweed with the entrails of dead oozefish, and has an annoying habit of lingering on the breath of drinkers. Quint, Twig, and Rook all hate tripweed. In The Immortals, Nate "can't bear the stuff" either.

W

• Waterwillow - Similar to the weeping willow, and related to the weeping willoak. Found near lakes and rivers in the Deepwoods.
• Weeping willoak - Similar to the weeping willow.
• Woodsap - A large, tasty pear-like fruit. It has dark red skin and golden flesh. The juice of this fruit can be used to make woodsap ale, a popular drink in Undertown and the Deepwoods Glades. Little, if anything, is known about the plant itself.
• Woodflax - Similar to flax and found in the Deepwoods. Weaved by the lowbelly goblin clans into strong cloth for their belly-slings.
• Wood-juniper - Similar to juniper and found in the Deepwoods. Can be used to make a salve that will help cure a fever. This is what Keris is treated with in The Lost Barkscrolls.
• Woodmint - A herb similar to mint, found in the Deepwoods.
• Woodonion - An edible plant, presumably based on onions. They can cause creatures to cry when cutting them and have many layers.