That Poor Plant



""Hey, check out the palm tree! It only gets sick when I cook brunch! How's that for a coincidence, Professor? With all your precious science!""

- Bender, Futurama

Need to show how the Phlebotinum Du Jour affects living things, but the character isn't evil enough to test it on an animal? Well, plants are fair game. Therefore, plants tend to get mistreated a lot in fiction.

Are you a scientist who wants to test your new mystery formula? Just take an eyedropper and drop a few drops in the soil of your Philodendron. If it's a miracle cure, the plant will go from wilting to flourishing -- and possibly to horribly mutated. If it's deadly poison, as it so often is, it will go from healthy and green to a sad pile of ashen leaves and shriveled vines. (Do note: for added drama, the plant will often wait to transform until you're sure that nothing is going to happen and leave the lab disappointed. Then it will probably turn into a monster and start wreaking havoc.)

Do you suspect that your friend is infected with The Virus or some sort of radioactivity? Do you want to make sure it's still safe to go near him? Have him go near a potted Ficus. If your friend is dangerous, the tree will instantly shrivel and die, all its leaves falling off at once.

Is your friend a Lethal Chef, but you don't want to hurt their feelings? Do you just want to make sure their cooking is safe to eat? When they're not looking, dump the -er- food into the Dracaena's pot. The plant will probably curl its leaves and die at once from the toxic substance meant to be comestible. Good thing you didn't eat it. It works with drinks, too.

Incidentally, none of these tests would work so well in real life. If you're paying attention at all, you may have noticed that humans and plants are very different living things. It should be noted that most of the plants you see out your window today are the ones that are the most resistant to disease and dangerous substances. Houseplants are often specifically marketed as air purifiers, meaning that they are also very resilient to the kinds of things that would easily make an animal sick. And we haven't even touched how long it could take for the substance in question to be absorbed into the soil, and then absorbed from the soil into the plant, and then for the substance to actually start killing the plant.

Vegetation is also apparently an excellent barometer for magical evilness. Has your character gained incredible nature-based powers and is Friend to All Living Things? Flowers and plants will sprout wherever she walks. Meanwhile, the Enemy to All Living Things is likely to be surrounded by dead trees and blackened grass.

Despite what the name implies, has nothing to do with either That Poor Cat or That Poor Car. Also please refrain from adding examples where plants are harmed by situations other than those described above.

Anime and Manga

 * In the Fullmetal Alchemist anime two-part episode, "The Other Brothers Elric", Fletcher and Russell save Xenotime from the impending flood of red water by having all the trees in the surrounding area soak it up like a giant tree drain. All the trees are (apparently) then destroyed by the brothers.
 * In One Piece, just following the Little Garden arc, we get a small preview of Crocodile's powers when he expresses his annoyance with Mr. 3 by using a Touch of Death to make a rose wither into dust.
 * In one episode of Slayers, Xellos made a vegetable stew so noxious, the ingredients were screaming in pain... Taking part of a cooking competition though, he thought the whole idea was to kill the competition.
 * Cheza may be a weird sort of plant/human hybrid, but this trope is in full force near the end of the series where  Definitely not played for comedy. And it only gets worse.

Comic Books

 * In the Tintin (Comic Book) story Flight 714, when Captain Haddock is given a glass of health tonic by an eccentric millionaire, he dumps it onto a Ficus. The plant immediately starts dropping its leaves.
 * PapaSmurf once had an experiment with a daisy gone awry.

Film

 * Used hilariously in the film The Emperors New Groove - a cactus ends up turning into a topiary llama after Yzma pours some potion-induced drink into it. Earlier, she got the idea to poison Kuzco when she, in full Evil Plan gloat-mode, accidentally knocks a vial of poison onto a plant, causing it to explode and then shrivel into blackness in seconds.
 * In Shrek 2 - Shrek sneezes the potion that'll make him look attractive onto a mushroom, and as the group walks away it turns into a pretty rose.
 * Those fortunate fungi.
 * Madame Mim's first use of magic in Disney's The Sword in The Stone is to wither a flower on her window sill.
 * Scary Movie 2 has Shorty using a Psycho Serum on his marijuana plants. The plant later grows, becomes sentient, and starts smoking Shorty like he was a blunt.
 * Abbott and Costello's movie "The Naughty Nineties" had a hilarious scene where the Big Bad and Costello's character Sebastian are put alone together in a private room in a theater, where she proceeds to poison his drink. They then do a Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo back and forth until he gets confused and opts to toss the drink in the fern next to him. Sebastian watches the fern die very slowly, and then wipes his glass very thoroughly on his tux.

Literature

 * Ur-Example: In Hawthorne's "Rappacini's Daughter", the title character is so poisonous that ordinary plants wilt when she touches them.
 * Crowley and his plants in Good Omens. They're the healthiest houseplants in London,
 * Aversion: In The Belgariad, Garion's recently-discovered cousin Adara asks for him to show his magic powers by making a bush bloom again. Garion refuses since it's winter and the bush would die. He then creates a new flower for her out of a twig and grass.
 * The flower is decidedly lopsided, puny, and... well, it's lopsided, let's leave it at that. Give Garion a break; it's his first go at live transmutation. It's nicknamed Adara's Rose, because Garion really, really loves his beautiful Algarian cousin, (or so Ce'Nedra thinks), and it does have a nice smell. And oh, did we mention it's a sovereign specific, cures any poisoning? Imagine wearing anti-poison as a perfume (Sadi wonders if it works as antivenin as well; we never do get to find out). One of the funnier scenes in the Malloreon plays out during this arc, especially when Belgarath tries to get the plant to grow.
 * In one of the Star Wars: Young Jedi Knights novels Tenel Ka accidentally orders a Gargle Blaster and dumps it in a potted plant, then apologizes when it gets annoyed.

Live Action TV

 * The old 1950s Superman series had the Radioactivity example. Superman gets exposed to Radiation and goes into self-imposed exile. He's lonely and wants to be around others, so he put his hand out over a potted plant. But he's so radioactive and deadly, the plant dies on the spot.
 * Inverted with Chuck and the plant that grows when abused with radioactive water.
 * Lois and Clark - there's an episode in which Mr. Mxyzptlk causes a burp in time, forcing Clark to relive a day again and again during which everyone becomes more depressed and pessimistic. Each time it happens the Christmas tree in the Daily Planet officee dwindles until it's just a stalk with a bauble on it.
 * In The Twilight Zone episode "One For The Angels", Mr. Death proves his identity by touching a plant and causing it to wilt and die.
 * In the pilot of Friends Rachel makes coffee. Chandler and Joey think it tastes awful, but they politely pour it into the potted plant on the table rather than upset her. Cut to a scene later in the day and Monica has to toss out the now-dead plant.
 * On Supernatural, in "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things" the undead girl caused plants around her to die.
 * On Heroes, Mr. Linderman demonstrates his healing power on a wilted orchid.
 * On I Carly: Carly devises a homemade pesticide for her science project and tests it on Spencer's healthy tomato plant. Said plant smokes profusely and withers instantly. Carly exasperatedly deems herself (and later Spencer) as "The Plant Murderer".
 * Intentionally used on Hogan's Heroes. Colonel Hogan wants to keep convincing Klink that a killer is after him, so he laces the kommandant's tea with what's probably a powerful herbicide and serves it to him--then, at the last moment, notes that the tea might be poisonous and pours it into Klink's office plant instead. The plant dies dramatically and Klink believes Hogan's story.
 * Hercules: The Legendary Journeys had a poisonous drink poured into a plant in "As Darkness Falls". As is usual, the plant instantly wilted.
 * British Dom Com One Foot in The Grave had its eternally unlucky protagonist poison an entire garden when he inadvertently used cocaine instead of fertiliser.

Newspaper Comics

 * Dilbert featured an arc where Wally's potted plant becomes the waste receptacle for his coffee dregs. Dilbert later suggests to him that he switch to decaf; the next panel shows a giant tree growing out of the office building.

Video Games
""You can't test plants you know. We tried.""
 * It is implied that Ema did this to Phoenix Wright's plant.
 * Though seeing as it is still around in the 4th game, and is implyed to be the same plant, it survives.
 * His name is Charlie.
 * GLaDOS makes reference to this in Portal2.

Web Comics

 * The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob: When a villain tries to steal Bob's new superpowers, Bob manages to transfer them to a potted plant instead. "Mr. Geranium" thanks them and flies off to explore the universe.
 * Nukees: The waste disposal plant.
 * Jason Love's cartoons: "You're putting coffee grounds in the plants again?"

Western Animation

 * In Swat Kats a doctor tested a new growth formula on a wilting rose. It began thriving, and he called the mayor. But several moments later, the rose became mutated and violent.
 * In Batman the Brave And The Bold Lethal Chef Wildcat makes a blenderful of Tiger Tonic. He gulps his down contentedly, but Batman pours his into a potted plant. The plant loses all its leaves save one.
 * When the Sumerian Century Flower blooms in The Simpsons, its smell sends the crowd around it fleeing, and kills all the nearby plants; except one, which Homer runs back to stomp.
 * Veggie Tales has fallen into this, using non-talking vegetables for various things, such as a non-speaking pumpkin with a scrawled on face to test a fish-slapper.
 * The Silly Symphonies short "Flowers and Trees" is made of this. Everybody now: "Awwww...".
 * In the pilot for Batman Beyond, we only see the full effects of the illegal nerve gas on a plant. Human and cattle subjects are also displayed, but what happens is only implied to be horrible through villain reaction shots.
 * The tiny little Death Omen pine tree from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It eventually bursts into flames, causing Sally to seriously question whether Jack's great Christmas takeover plan is such a good idea.
 * Done for laughs in Teen Titans by Beast Boy when the bathroom was occupied.
 * Inspector Gadget – MAD assassins try to bump off Gadget by poisoning the hors d'oeuvres at a party he’s attending. Brain gets rid of them by dumping them in a nearby potted plant, which promptly wilts and dies.
 * In Futurama whenever Bender tries to cook the Planet Express crew dumps the food into a plant, Lampshaded by Bender when he asks "How come the plant only gets sick when I cook?".
 * One S2 episode of Winx Club had Bloom experimenting with her recently discovered healing powers, using some plants as test subjects. However, since the book she had gotten from the library had been planted there by an evil spy, it caused the spells she used to cause one of the plants to burst into fire, and another to turn into a monster. This trope is also inverted when in S4
 * Used in the Tintin (Comic Book) story Flight 714, Captain Haddock pours a chlorophyl-enriched cola drink into an airport's potted palm. It instantly withers, dropping a leaf on his face.
 * In "Hand in Hand" on Kick Buttowski, Kendall, disguised as Gunther, releases a burst of flatulence that not only creates a great wind, it causes several plants to blacken and wilt instantly.