Plant Life around Allanak

[Ath]

So I have a topic in mind here that could support something I am doing down the road.  As always, we don't give details on upcoming projects, as we don't want to get hopes up and let people down if it doesn't go through.  I will also put a big fat disclaimer here, as some do tend to run wild with their imaginations...  this topic will be moderated by myself, and is for the purposes for discussion, thoughts, ideas, and constructive criticism.  It isn't for complaints, speculations, or to give out secrets on the game.  This topic will be on the Planet Life around Allanak, I do ask that if you know of more rare plants and their locations, please don't disclose them, as that isn't what I am looking for here.

So Allanak is smack dab in the middle of a desert, but does have some vegetation around it.  It does have some farms to the south, a clay might, but also a new area of scoria that has cropped up.  So agriculturally, there has been a lot going on in the Allanak region.  So we're talking the Salt Flats, the Desert surrounding, the grassy areas to the south and around Red Storm, and the Scoria plains.  Right now there are few plants scattered around these areas, some more than other, some might even be lacking.  I'd like to talk about these plants, what could potentially grow, what could not grow, what areas do you think could have new stuff growing, or is there just not enough plantlife period in these areas?

This is an open topic, but I'd like to keep it on task.  If you stray from the topic, I will just remove your post.  Once again, don't give away specific locations of plants, and don't directly give away rarer plants (there really are none around Allanak that I can think of), if we do, I'll just edit out specific names.  None of this is game breaking.  If you don't want to learn about areas around Allanak, I just suggest not reading this topic.

Thank you guys!  I look forward to hearing what you all have to say.

Note:  I will close this topic when I feel that it has met the goal I have in mind.  Which is to gather information and feedback on Plant Life around Allanak.

[Lizzie]

Plants in real life that grow on/around volcanos (and on scoria and thrive on volcanic ash) that could presumably grow near Allanak:

Coffee
Grape vines (also needs to be watered, so this wouldn't be wild. It'd be cultivated).
Assorted mosses (needs moisture but not necessarily rain)
Silversword (requires humidity, which is a common stratospherical condition in the presence of volcanos) - again - something that might be cultivated from the volcano that -used- to be outside Allanak.

In "real life" volcanic plantlife tends to thrive in moist climates, since volcanos create moist climates. Now that the volcano is gone in the Allanak area, it could probably be assumed that cactii and other succulents are popping back out of the ground. In addition, common desert plants, the Zalanthan versions of rosemary, sage, and lavender could all grow in the new scoria area.

[AdamBlue]

With the farm close to Allanak, I'm surprised there isn't more natural to find wheat/flour available to Allanak. The fact that there is a 'famine' in a city so large for such a long time when there are so many possible resources to be had baffles me. With the expansion of Allanak, more and more advanced harvesting techniques and skills, as well as gemmed intervention, you'd think the problem with food and water in Allanak from farming would have been at least somewhat dealt with. In fact, more food types should be more readily available.

[Ath]

That Famine has been over for awhile now, prices were lowered again from what they were.  The issue is now there is a reduced amount of food coming in, so prices are no where near where they were before.

You bring up the gemmed with this, who in their right mind would ever want to eat food that the gemmed ever touched or had any inclination to work with.  The general populace of Allanak hate/dispise/fear the gemmed.  While I realize that some mundane characters will be friendly with them, that is not the general populaces attitude towards them.

The issue at the current point is there is limited "suitable" areas for forming around Allanak.  Now if players in leadership positions wish to take it upon themselves to try to improve things in some way within constraints of the technology and ability of their characters, you never know what could happen.

--

I do think the Scoria has promise.  It's an area that I've been doing a bit of research on... it's been a few years since the volcano, it could be possible something may grow there.  That would be a Producer level decision, but at the moment nothing grows there.

[Miradus]

Coffee requires a very specific climate and elevation, not just rainfall and moisture. Grapes require seasonal cycles to produce.

The presence of the salt flats means very little is going to be grown on the east side. Salt kills soil and with it blowing around, there shouldn't even be vNPC wheat farms there from an ecological standpoint.

Those scoria plains, as described, do not look like they would support much plant life at all. There has to be nutrition in the soil. The dusty and arid plains would support basic grasses and small shrubs. The grasses would be similar to Johnson grass in their ability to prevent predation through phytotoxins. Any grazing animals would need to be browsers similar to goats and deers as opposed to cattle in order to diminish phytotoxin buildup.

To be the most ecologically correct, "pioneer plants" would need to be introduced to terraform the area. A host of low-growing clovers and thorns, what we normally would consider weeds, would be introduced to fix nitrogen in the soil and break down scoria into actual soil. It normally takes a million or so years to turn volcanic scoria like in Hawaii into lush, fertile soil like Idaho. But it can and does happen. You could show the process beginning. Trees could be planted to establish windbreaks. Over 80% of the energy young plants consume is utilized for standing upright. This is why windswept regions often have very low-growing plants.

If it were me, I would initiate it as a project of the High Lord and have him establish a special house to deal with agriculture. You have a house which deals with fine luxury goods, one that deals with arms and armor, one that deals with spice and desert survival. Why not one that deals specifically with animal breeding and agriculture? That would let you explain away the speed at which the desert and scoria is being transformed as part of an expansive terraforming effort.

Sorry. Normally I lurk, but I'm a botanist who has written books on botany. Plants will draw me out of the shadows every time.

[valeria]

The scoria plains are volcanic, which tend to weather into rich soils.  However, part of one of the things that makes them rich is that they hold water very well, which isn't necessarily true of the scoria.

For the scoria area, I would add:
mosses
scoria lily
ocotillo (because they're oniony and wild onion is a possibility)
yucca
wild mustard
golden pea (possibly, tends to require at least some moisture)
woody plantain (probably like the woody white roots, a pickable version instead of a forageable version)

For the desert area I'm surprised we don't/have more have more:
sedge/grasses
thorn shrubs
bimbal (because it already grows in the area)
snakeweed (already grows in the area)
some form of red pea (iffy, does require at least one rain IRL)

[nauta]

Yes, please!

Re: realism - you can always handwave a little and say it was a magic volcano and magic scoria, so the vegetation that took root grew magically fast.

You could also introduce small oases where many kinds of plants would flourish.

--

Here are some things that, according to room descriptions, help files, and/or NPC vendors, seem to be available in the Red Storm/Nak region, although as far as I can tell they are either completely virtual or at the very least not very well distributed.

Gohn grasses.

Grebel grasses.

Nemik mushrooms.

Gahtle stalks.

Red Beans.

hard, powdery blue vegetables.

Silt fruit.

handful of thin-skinned green berries.

Styrax (I mean, seriously, everything in Red Storm is made out of Styrax, but where the heck is this stuff?)

a small purple flower

a wild desert rose

a small, turquoise-colored flower

a small pink flower

As well: there are loads of plants that grow in the Red Desert that could also grow down in the south:

Haspeth
Arato
Makras
Joybane
Sivifi
Sandspider
Runebane
Chedya
Heinspike
Precos
Chuci peppers.

[Desertman]

There's an odd absence of cacti in this entire region actually.

There should be multiple types probably with some affording different cacti fruit, thorns, fibers, maybe even poisons?

At the end of the day it is a fantasy game as well, so I vote for this.


A leathery-tentacled, sand strangler vine

It's a vine that grows actually beneath the loose sand out of the rotting remains of long dead corpses that have bee covered by the blowing dunes. It's an interesting cycle of life actually. The vines use the corpses of the dead as nutrients to get them going. Once they are grown they are known to lash out from beneath the sand and kill travelers and passing creatures alike. Once dead the vine pulls them back beneath the surface to add to their root system for nutrients. The vines themselves have an ongoing agreement with the carrion birds of the region. Once a plant dies it gives off the scent of a dozen rotting corpses for days. This is likely due to the fact it feeds entirely off of said corpses. This attracts carrion birds who come to pick at the grossly meat-like flesh of the dead plant. Within the flesh there are seeds. The carrion birds inherently end up taking some of these seeds along with them to the next "dead thing" they pick over and by chance end up leaving seeds behind to take root in said remains and grow more vines anew. Thus, the circle of life continues.

Extreme bonus points if these can be coded to pick up all of the items from the people/things they kill. Some animals now will eat a corpse and leave all of the items behind. In this case, the vines would eat the corpse, but then "get all" and keep all of the items in its very large inventory over time. Basically, getting the loot would be roleplayed as finding the rotting corpses being slowly decomposed at the roots of these plants with their gear more or less intact. The vines don't eat the gear, or the corpses really, they just feed off of them naturally as they decompose at their root systems. It would be fun to kill these vines and actually find loot hordes 'beneath' them.

Disclaimer: Stolen and Zalanthanized/desertized from a vine in Dungeons and Dragons that does more or less the same thing to an extent.

[Desertman]

A black-thorned, bulbous-sacked plant....or something similar.

Basically it's a plant that grows in very "water scarce" areas that produces the equivalent of bulbous root sacs. I vote for, "a wrinkled black sac", because the jokes would be real.

Anyhow, you can "pick" the water sacs, a couple of them at a time, from this plant but you would risk being poisoned via the handy new "plants can poison you" code with grishen. Grishen seems fitting.

I think the far salt flats seems like a good area, or a certain network of canyons in the other direction.

[path]

Here are some plants from the old website I think would make sense. Probably some of them are already what you find. I don't know. I cordially second everything suggested by valeria and nauta.


Ashkiss: Dusty grey and pallid, this sparse growth of lichen manages to survive on the minimal amounts of moisture in the air. Its powdery flakes look edible but utterly unappealing.
Grows in arid terrain, on rocks.

Haspeth: Much like a spineless cactus, this yellow plant has very thick skin. Thick yellow seeds can be picked off it.
Found in the Red Desert, this plant's seeds are edible.

Jesstik: They lie close to the ground, leaving barren earth between where the rounded edges join together here and there in a haphazard pattern to form a single mass which covers a broad swathe of ground. From centers of the largest rounded bumpy lumps protrude cord long crystalline spikes. On the very tip of some of these can be seen brittle, fragile looking blooms.
Grows exclusively in salty areas, and its decorative flowers and leaves bear a close resemblance to salt crystals.

Jherweed: The clump of weedy, light-brown tendrils that form this plant is spotted all over with tiny black seeds, about the size of a human's least fingernail.
Native to sandy wastelands.

Joybane: The round, woody stem of this plant is covered with small, rounded and lobed blue-green leaves dotted with oil glands which give off a strongly pungent aroma. Frilled, slipper-shaped greenish-yellow flowers blossom atop the rigid stem.
Named for the pungent oil the leaves release when handled, which causes the eyes to well up with tears, causing involunatary weeping. Used as a seasoning, this plant grows in both scrub and desert climes.

Khee: This spindly plant is over three cords in height and crowned with miniscule clusters of flat yellow flowers. The finely cut, lime green leaves are wispy-looking and deeply aromatic, with a sweet, anise-like fragrance. The bright green stalk seems to grow out of a fleshy, white bulb.
All parts of this plant are edible, and used in cooking or seasoning. The leaves are also used to make perfume. Found in a variety of terrains.

Pech Grass: Bladed in stiff, spearlike leaves, this tall grass grows a few cords high, shaded in dry browns and thin edged gold.
Good grazing, pech grass is the most common type of grass in the Known World.

Marilla: This brownish-white tree stands about five cords in height and is about as wide as a human's thigh. Its bark is smooth and hugs the tannish wood beneath as it rises from the ground, odd because of its lack of leaves.

Maar: This appears to be a maar tree, by its twisted, dark yellow appearance and stubby size. At no more than knee height its trunk divides into a tangled mess of branches, each fringed with fern-like maroon leaves.
One of the only trees not found in forests; it ekes out existence in desert-like conditions.

Runebane: Large oval leaves, crumpled and wilted a little from rough handling, are scattered with a mottling of white spots. A funnel shaped flower, purplish blue in color, is mixed in with the foliage.
Used in bandages and salves for its numbing properties, this plant is common in rocky, semi-arid regions.

Sandspider: Long and thin, this leaf looks a lot like a spider's leg. Reddish brown in color, it blends into the desert sands quite well.
Reputedly an elven aphrodisiac, this plant is found in the desert, as the name implies.

Sivifi: This wiry bush is clearly a product of the desert, its narrow, almost rectangular leaves designed to conserve their precious moisture. In color, they are grey, with only the slightest hint of green evident beneath the surface, shading to a dusty rose at the very tip. A few orange flowers grow deep within the bush, near the base, as shaded as possible by the upper foliage.
Its seeds are used to flavor one variety of cheese, and are edible themselves. Found in otherwise desolate areas, particularly in the southlands.

Stingtongue: This tiny leaf is perhaps an inch wide, perhaps a trifle less. It is perfectly circular, and a deep blue-green in color.
Named for its bitterness, this herb is useful in reducing fevers. Found in mesas and other stony areas.

Tembotooth: These leaves are long, narrow, and glossy green. Brushed, they release a warm, peppery scent with hints of anise.
Chewed for their mildly stimulating qualities, and used in cooking and seasoning, as well as in a spicy perfume.

Templar's Heart: Blossoms of a bright red, a shade resembling human blood, adorn each of the spidery crimson vine's lanky tendrils, spaced at intervals with slender, pronged thorns.
The flowers of this southern vine are used to make a rare perfume.

Tenichi: These long calyxed, purple flowers with bright yellow stamens are borne on long stalks, the leaves a glossy purplish green in color.
Growing in oases, this plant bears both vibrant blossoms and small edible figs.

Thilareyn: A sprawling tangle of vines running every which way, this plant seems to subsist on the dry climate of the desert. Tendrils depend from the vines, each one leading down into the ground, anchoring the plant. From the vines grow small, hard berries.
The berries of this desert vine are edible.

Thugi: This pepper plant thrives in rocky terrain. Its scraggly, purple-green leaves shade small, wrinkled black peppers.
This extremely hot, edible pepper grows in the southlands.


edited to add the link: http://old.armageddon.org/general/plantlife.html

[nauta]

Oh, yeah, thugi peppers!  Please!

You could also have certain kinds of plants blown in from the silt sea that took root along the shore.

Also, re: cacti -- Cenyr has about six or seven kinds of cacti objects pretty much unique to it.  You could use these objects.

A small comment (some thoughts) on gameplay and plants.

1. I don't think we need any more 'cure' plants -- cures and cure plants are already far too easy to come by inside the game, in my opinion, since (a) brewing a cure even at novice is no-fail and (b) the leaves/cures do not decay.

2. I'd like to see more plants that have a use in more mundane things, like: basketweaving, floristry, dyeing,  incenses, soaps, seasonings (see our awesome help file on SEASONINGS - a lot of which are non-craftable).

3. The fauna.  Gathering plants in the Grasslands is a fun challenge, because the animals up there have a lot of interesting and dynamic scripts.  In the south, no offense to death beetles and spiders, the critters aren't too interesting: a plant gatherer in the south is either suicidal/playing-their-odds, a Byn unit, or a giant/gick. 

4. Yes, please, open up a House Dasari in the south!

[Ath]

Awesome botany stuff here.

Hey, I love the feedback... and any professional information is great when referencing for a fantasy world.  Thankfully we are a fantasy world so we have a bit of ability to be creative with what we come up with, as long as it isn't too out there.

The scoria plains are volcanic, which tend to weather into rich soils.  However, part of one of the things that makes them rich is that they hold water very well, which isn't necessarily true of the scoria.

For the desert area I'm surprised we don't/have more have more:

I tend to agree, hence the topic and the ideas.  Scoria might be too new, but it's a thought process and could be changed in time, who know what can grow there.

Yes, please!

Re: realism - you can always handwave a little and say it was a magic volcano and magic scoria, so the vegetation that took root grew magically fast.

You could also introduce small oases where many kinds of plants would flourish.

That is all very true.  Also suggestions are great.  Oases are rough... as that make a huge game-play shift and then local powers will go all out trying to claim.  We have to think about game-play and world fit.

There's an odd absence of cacti in this entire region actually.

There should be multiple types probably with some affording different cacti fruit, thorns, fibers, maybe even poisons?

There is a lacking of cacti... another item I've through of.  Normally that is all virtual, not something that can be used in game, but maybe there should be.

Path - Thank you for that list, that is helpful.

[Ath]

So lets focus a small bit... we are a fantasy world, and we are a game.  So we have to take game-play into consideration.  If we look at the area south of Allanak, the grassy area... what sort of plants would be fitting there?  With the plants that are already there, are there not enough to pick and utilize?  Of what we pick to be in that area, what would be more populace over others?

[Desertman]

So lets focus a small bit... we are a fantasy world, and we are a game.  So we have to take game-play into consideration.  If we look at the area south of Allanak, the grassy area... what sort of plants would be fitting there?  With the plants that are already there, are there not enough to pick and utilize?  Of what we pick to be in that area, what would be more populace over others?

I think we want to avoid making the south a bit too "herb/flower heavy". I like the contrast between available herbs/flowers/usable-for-cures-and-poisons plants you find in the north and the south. I like HAVING to travel across the world to get access to those things. It makes the world seem bigger and requires actual effort to do something.

If we put too many herbs/flowers/things like that in the south, then we just reinforce the issue of "resources not actually being rare" on this front, which is an issue already.

My point being that I think these areas would/should focus more heavily on plants that produce usable fibers like grasses and hardy vines, food bearing plants like cacti fruits and root/tuber producing plants, and water-bearing plants.

I would hope we avoid putting trees in the south at all costs for reasons related to "we just made getting wood stupid easy" unless we put them on islands out in the Silt Sea. In fact, that might be a great idea since it makes using silt skimmers actually more useful/more feasible for actual mundane tasks related to the economy. Maybe that's where all of that styrax wood comes from? It would be sufficiently difficult and costly so as not to make "getting wood in the south" child's play.

[Iiyola]

I think there should definitely be more plants to pick from, especially from the Arid Fields.

Such as:

- horta
- sweetbreeze
- numut vine
- pech grass
- ocotillo
- templar's heart

[Miradus]

So lets focus a small bit... we are a fantasy world, and we are a game.  So we have to take game-play into consideration.  If we look at the area south of Allanak, the grassy area... what sort of plants would be fitting there?  With the plants that are already there, are there not enough to pick and utilize?  Of what we pick to be in that area, what would be more populace over others?

I'd say grasses. It's a grassland. Arid regions are generally only populated by grasses and small, thorny things. If I look out my window right now I see mostly grasses, some prickly pear, and mesquite. There's about 3 agarita bushes to our 10 acres. Our annual rainfall here is ~20 inches per year.

From grasses come wicker but also various forms of clothing. A lot of Asian cultures utilize monocots like grasses and palms for everything from housing to clothing. Many grasses also produce seeds which are highly edible. As a hobby, I grow aloe. I've had it turn completely brown and withered and then when you give it some water it comes right back to life. Plants which grow in arid regions tend to be extremely hearty and hold on to their water and vegetation.

It's a fantasy setting, but it's low fantasy. You can't just My Little Pony it into Sweet Apple Acres without a reason, even if you do have legions of gemmers who can twiddle their fingers and fill up barrels. So I think what you have to decide is do you want this new "greening of the south' to be a natural thing or man-made.

If it's natural, then there's an encroachment of plants. If it's man-made then you've got agriculturists out there setting up moisture traps (to harvest moisture in the wind and condensation from the day-night cycle) and setting up irrigation methods.

Historically it seems like magic events have made some pretty big changes in Armageddon history, from the drowning of the halflings to the kank plague to meteorites. So technically you can do whatever you want. It only falls to you to decide how plausible and realistic you want to be.

[path]

I think we want to avoid making the south a bit too "herb/flower heavy". I like the contrast between available herbs/flowers/usable-for-cures-and-poisons plants you find in the north and the south. I like HAVING to travel across the world to get access to those things. It makes the world seem bigger and requires actual effort to do something.

If we put too many herbs/flowers/things like that in the south, then we just reinforce the issue of "resources not actually being rare" on this front, which is an issue already.

I strongly agree with this. What if a slower version of the food decay code were applied to plants? Would that change how you felt about it or just make the current situation even better?

Nauta - I have never explored the cure/poison making code, but having them too easily crafted sounds like an issue worth remedying.

Both types of peppers, the siltfruit and the hard blue vegetables are at the top of my personal list. Wild roses are one of the first things I think of, maybe because nostalgia, but they don't seem as thematically correct. I'd like them better in more mountainous regions. Yuca was spot on. I pulled up seven yuca one year and the following spring they were still just....alive. Like...roots exposed...greening up and growing on. So I replanted them. I respect a plant with that level of survivability. They put out stems of surprisingly graceful and stout white flowers.

I'd like edible cactus flowers, fat-petaled with a pleasantly bitter, green taste and, cooked, with a soggy flavor like mashed nuts. Maybe cactus that can be sliced to rounds and fried. Or maybe some like little pom-poms ...thistles! We need thistles!

It would be really cool if we could have some kind of plant code that allowed things to ripen and go from being inedible or poisonous to a wonderful treat.

The reason I'd like to see marilla trees is that they do sound like the sort've leafless thing you'd see sparingly in the desert. I could easily imagine their silhouette the color of aged bone against the sun-baked sands. We could just as well say their splintery wood is unusable for general crafts, but without kanks I wish sweet flavors were more available for cooking.

If that sounds like a bad deal, we could make up a saccharine cactus honey (either from the body or roots, maybe something cookable from a broken part of the plant) and have it be bright green for continuity.

The internet tells me, "Instead of leaves, most cacti have spines or scales (which are modified leaves)" Cactus scales sound like they could make a good tea or seasoning or we could grind them up to make something for sweeter dishes. That would be more like cactus dust. While we're on this, I'd like more ways to get high. Like, chew this and you'll be able to go on at least until dusk.

I know. I'm stuck on cooking. It's just where I'm at right now.

[manipura]

I would love it if plants produced different items (fruits or flowers, for example) based on what the month of the year was.  Instead of every plant always producing the same fruit or flower all the time.

I don't know if this is a coding headache though.

I think it makes more sense that plants in the south are hardier.  Not so many flowery, delicate blossoms.  Sturdy flowers that aren't getting battered by the heat and sand regularly yet still remaining "a delicate, dainty blossom".  Plants with thin dainty leaves don't strike me as suited to the southern climate while plants with those thick, waxy, almost rubbery leaves do.
Grasses, vines, and cacti are all realistic things to be in the south, I think.  Groves of lush fruit trees and bushes brimming with delicate flowers, not so much.

[Desertman]

I would love it if plants produced different items (fruits or flowers, for example) based on what the month of the year was.  Instead of every plant always producing the same fruit or flower all the time.

I don't know if this is a coding headache though.

I think this is a neat idea but in a season-less world like Zalanthas I'm not sure what the driving factor would be behind this.

Maybe the moons and their positions or something?

[path]

I would love it if plants produced different items (fruits or flowers, for example) based on what the month of the year was.  Instead of every plant always producing the same fruit or flower all the time.

I don't know if this is a coding headache though.

I think this is a neat idea but in a season-less world like Zalanthas I'm not sure what the driving factor would be behind this.

Maybe the moons and their positions or something?

Some flowers only bloom at night. That seems very fantasy desert to me.

[LauraMars]

Yuca was spot on. I pulled up seven yuca one year and the following spring they were still just....alive. Like...roots exposed...greening up and growing on. So I replanted them. I respect a plant with that level of survivability. They put out stems of surprisingly graceful and stout white flowers.

I grew up with Yuca plants, cactus, and sage bushes all over my yard (a really weird landscaping choice for a home in rural Minnesota)...all of these plants seem completely indestructible no matter what the weather.

[nauta]

Hi, popping in again!

I'd like to see items unique to Red Storm / the south introduced (see my list above: siltfruits, gahtle stalks, those powdery blue vegetables, heck why not wheat?).  AFAIK, these are all virtual / only sold by NPCs.  This would draw tribals down south, and thus create interaction.

What grassy area are you talking about?  The area around Yaroch (Arid Fields) is forageable for some pretty good roots and ocotillo -- all of which are found in the north as well -- but it doesn't extend very far.  South of that, according to the room description, it turns into non-grassy pretty fast.  West is the scoria, and west of that the room descriptions describe some cataclysm that has wiped out all plant life (including cacti) -- although there is a plantation pretty far west which I assume, granted who owns it, is a bit of a unique thing.

Right now in the southlands generally (trying to be vague to avoid IC details) you can pick: bimbal (lots and lots of bimbal), joybane, pech grass, spiny cacti, templar's heart, sivifi, kaya fruits, a variety of mushrooms, roses, fenrel, jherweed, red leaf, and smelly thilareyn berries.  The only really safe plants to pick are bimbal, pech grass, templar's heart, kaya fruits, and spiny cacti -- the rest are pretty far out there.  Unique to the southlands are: templar's heart and kaya fruits.

I've had a couple characters tasked with discovering the plant life in the Known, and I've kept a pretty good database of it -- so if you want to blast me a request, I can give out a few more details.

[wizturbo]

I think it would be more interesting if plant life was virtually non-existent in most places (given that Zalanthas has virtually zero rainfall) and abundant around sources of water.   

Having any vegetation in a place that hasn't had rain in a hundred years doesn't make a lot of sense even in a fantasy world, unless that vegetation feeds on mobile water supplies like animals or people

Game play wise, it would create scarcity outside of these critical locations, naturally concentrating the PC population around these areas.  Want to be a raider?  Hanging out at one of the few entrances to an Oasis is probably not a bad place to prey on travelers.  Then again, an Oasis is more likely to be under the protection of something strong, like a tribe or even the Allanaki military itself if it's in Vrun Driath. 

[manipura]

I would love it if plants produced different items (fruits or flowers, for example) based on what the month of the year was.  Instead of every plant always producing the same fruit or flower all the time.

I don't know if this is a coding headache though.

I think this is a neat idea but in a season-less world like Zalanthas I'm not sure what the driving factor would be behind this.

Maybe the moons and their positions or something?

There is already at least one sickness that is more common during a certain time of the year with the theory behind this increase in prevalence related to spores in the air and what area of the world you're in.
Even though the game doesn't have distinct 'seasons', I don't think it's really a stretch to think that things in the wilderness could have 'seasonal behaviours'.

I'm sure staff has already said at some point, fairly recently, that some of the animal life has different coded behaviours based on what time of year it is, which sounds sort of supportive of there being seasons.  Even if they don't have specific names.
If animals in the world behave differently during different times of the year (aka seasons) then I don't think it's a stretch that plants would have different behaviours as well.

[Socko]

Volcanic soil is actually quite nutrient-dense for plants: http://volcanology.geol.ucsb.edu/soil.htm

It would totally make sense if there were some opportunistic farmers and their slaves staking claims in the old volcanic region.  They would just have to drill down deep enough to get at the water (which is presumably down there, somewhere).

Similarly so, wild plants would probably take a long time to grow because they would have to work all that much harder to get to water.  Their root systems may be tough, fibrous, and deep, and their fruit could probably guard moisture jealously.