Blightbloom

Blightbloom

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Dead plants don’t mean much to most dragons. A living plant might have medicinal uses, or can be eaten for nutrients, or can even just be used for decoration. What use is a plant once its leaves start to curl and brown, and it finally returns to the ground from whence it came?

But dead plants do indeed mean something to Blightbloom. She doesn’t look like much of a scientist, but she has pioneered her own field of science: thanatobotany, the study of dead plants. When autumn comes and leaves start to fall, flowers begin to die, trees begin to shed, that is when Blightbloom thrives most. She is all too excited to race onto the field with her measurement tools and start poking, prodding, and examining leaves before they can hit the ground. Blightbloom believes that dead plants are not useless, and have many uses, such as fertilizer, if only other dragons would stop and take the time to take note of these uses.

She smells mulchy and earthy, and there are always little bits of torn leaves snagged in her scales. But Blightbloom is beautiful, and nothing lights up a room like her smile when she begins talking about chlorophyll. When her wings flap, it makes the sweet sound of crunching leaves. You would think the study of dead plants would best suit a particularly morbid dragon, but Blightbloom is optimistic and cheerful, and loves sharing her research and findings.

When she isn’t conducting research or organizing data, Blightbloom can be found pressing flowers, or arranging crunchy fallen leaves into a pile for a nap. She had worked as part of the foraging team once, but it became difficult to work with her, because every time they found a good source of plant food, Blightbloom would begin talking about how excited she was for it to die. But truly, she is good intentioned, and wishes to use her studies for the betterment of dragonkind and herbivore life.

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