Plant Mooks

Not-so-dandelions.

Monica: But they're alive, right?
Aaron: Depends on your definition of alive. They have more in common with broccoli than they do with you. Or me.
Monica: I hate broccoli. Let's kill 'em.

— Nextwave

Need an army of disposable Mooks but can't be bothered to pay them or build them? Maybe you can give your Green Thumb a workout and grow your own — all you need is some soil, some sunlight, and a little Applied Phlebotinum, and a bumper crop of minions awaits.

Like their technological brethren, the Mecha-Mooks, Plant Mooks have the advantage of providing an army of cannon fodder for the heroes without incurring the wrath of the Moral Guardians. Their strength and durability can also be justified by their plant nature — an individual sapling might be a pushover, but a giant walking tree will be more than a handful for most heroes. And it's not hard to give the Plant Mooks additional hero-stopping powers, such as vines to tie them up or sticky sap to trap them.

Unlike a Plant Person, a Plant Mook is seldom a protagonist or viewpoint character. After all, What Measure Is a Mook? In almost all cases, the Plant Mook's main purpose is to throw themselves at the heroes and get mowed down like grass.

A subtrope of Plant Person, Plant Aliens, Artificial Human, and Fantastic Flora. Also see Mushroom Man, When Trees Attack, Man-Eating Plant, and Garden of Evil.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Cyborg 009 vs. Devilman: Halfway through the film, the Cyborgs have to battle an entire army of plant-like demons, although it quickly turns into a Curb-Stomp Battle in favour of the far more powerful cyborgs.
• Digimon Adventure: Puppetmon, the Dark Master who rules over Spiral Mountain's forested areas, often makes use of large numbers of plant-based Digimon such as Woodmon and RedVegiemon — roughly humanoid tree stumps and hopping fruit with tentacles, respectively — as low-level henchmen.
• Dragon Ball Z: The saibamen are used by Saiyans as sparring partners and low-level infantry. Six are unleashed on Earth by Nappa, who plants their seeds in the ground. They are defeated by the Z Fighters, but manage to take at least one with them.
• Sailor Moon: The first film deals with a plant monster named Kisenian. She created several plant mooks that were a big trouble for the Sailor Senshi since they just kept growing from the soil and thus were very hard to defeat.

Comic Books

• Astro City: In one story, the villainous group Pyramid was growing an army of plant-soldiers inside a secret creche in Burma, only to be stopped by the Point Man. Another story refers to plant-based Artificial Humans created with technology from the Garden Gnome.
• Batman: Poison Ivy often grows her own army of mooks. It's also a particularly handy way to get around her disdain for men.
• In Nextwave, the Beyond Corporation's "Human Resources" are genetically-modified kelp, grown in gardens, and driven by software. Their level of sentience is left ambiguous.
• Wonder Woman Vol 1: While older Rykornians definitely have their own sense of self newly hatched/grown ones are fully functional and only follow the will of their king, which they know as soon as their about. This allows the king to quickly grow himself an army.

Fan Works

• Half Past Adventure: Forest Wizard has a number of plant mooks under his control, whom he uses to capture Macy and her friends. In addition to being able to blend into the forest since they're literally bushes, they also have some manner of nets that restrict Huntress Wizard's magic. Once they no longer have the advantage of surprise, though, they're pathetically quick to fall.

Films — Animated

• Despicable Me: Although it's never stated in the movies themselves, Gru's minions were originally supposed to be genetically modified kernels of corn. They've later been retconned into a preexisting race of yellow corn-like things.

Films — Live-Action

• Maleficent: The Sentries who resemble tall, wooden soldiers with demonic faces, and ride on huge boars.
• Return of the Killer Tomatoes! has the Tomato Transformation device, which turns tomatoes into people.
• Legend of the Shadow Warriors: Plant-based mooks are a reoccuring enemy for you to face, from the pumpkin-headed Haggworths to the root-like Mandrakes which will perform a Kill and Replace on their victims. You need to fight an entire army of Mandrake mooks at some point in your adventure, but luckily their numbers can be shaved down due to their severe weakness against fire.

Live Action TV

• Kamen Rider Geats: The Jyamato are plant-based creatures cultivated by the gardener Archimedel to serve as antagonists for the Desire Grand Prix.

Video Games

• Ashes 2063: Episode 2, Afterglow, has both Matangos and Spore Mortars. The former is a mobile patch of weeds as aggressive as a panther and capable of spitting jets of acid at very high speeds, while the latter is a turret-like inflorescence that can launch gobs of spores like mortar shells, with the explosive power to match, at things that come close. Both are significantly deadlier than most wasteland mutants; luckily, in line with the usual trope, both are very vulnerable to fire, and one of your best weapons is the Master Blaster.
• In Defense of the Ancients and its sequel Dota 2, Malfurion, Nature's Prophet, can turn trees into an army of small treants. They are most often used as cannon fodder to soak up the attacks of towers, which makes him one of the most efficient heroes for destroying buildings.
• Dragon Quest: The series has a variety of plant monsters that are either leaves, mushrooms, trees, cucumbers, seed like babies, onions, carrots, Venus flytraps, eggplants, etc.
  • Dragon Quest II: Treefaces, Treevils, Chewlips, and Gnashturtiums.
  • Dragon Quest III: Funghouls, Morphean Mushrooms, and Mushroom Mages
  • Dragon Quest IV: Stump Chump, Stump Grumps, Carnvines, Mandragores, Venus Guytraps
  • Dragon Quest V: Bad Apples, Rotten Apples, Cactiballs, Fandangows, Mental Pitchers, Screwball Pitchers, Gourdzillas
  • Dragon Quest VI: Ornery Onions, Loathsome Leeks, Brimstone Bulbs, Scare Roots, Wild Carrots, Toxic Turnips, Budding Sorcerers, and Blooming Sorcerers
  • Dragon Quest VII: Woebergines, Awebergines, Monologs, Direlogs, Writhing Roots, Gripevines, Gourdzillas, and Übergines, the last of which makes its first appearance in the 3DS remake.
  • Dragon Quest VIII: Capsichums, Paprikans, and Dark Macarbours, while the 3DS remake has the Cherreevil Blossoms, a monster that is only encountered after killing 30 Treefaces.
  • Dragon Quest IX: Cruelcumbers, Zumeanies, Scourgettes, Leafy Larrikins, Bud Brothers, and Shivery Shrubbies, the last of which will still follow you around even if you're at a higher level.
  • Dragon Quest X: Bushy Babies, Acorn Babies, Foebergines, Haunted Tomatoes, Mountain Onions, Aloehahas, Antiquitrees, Evil Tim Trees, Sinistletoes, Shamanjus, Maizetresses, Scary Cherry Blossoms, Snowballs, Ayashiitakes
  • Dragon Quest XI: Gnawchids, Stump Champs, and Golden Globes^note Making their main series debut after previously debuting in the 3DS remake of Dragon Quest Monsters 2
• Dreamkiller has the Dark Forest level, where every onscreen enemy is a plant-humanoid.
• Eastern Exorcist contains legions and legions of Treants, humanoids made of bark and wood with visible faces, as a recurring enemy in forest areas.
• Final Fantasy XIV: A variation occurs where you can get special seeds which, when planted, produces a pet-like minion.
• Fishgun is a game where certain fruits, including peaches, pears and cherries, have gained sentience and are hunting you down, and you spend the whole game slaughtering legions upon legions of killer fruits.
• Flash of the Blade have sentient, andromorphic bamboo people as enemies in the bamboo forest stage. Who somehow bleeds red once you sliced them apart, despite being plants. They have a habit of pretending to be real bamboo trees before attacking you.
• Fox N Forests: Some enemies in the game look like humanoid monsters made from vines.
• Genshin Impact: Whopperflowers sometimes roam around the wilderness: sometimes they hide inside the ground, and can appear if the player picks up the wrong plant in a field where there are 3 or 4 plants, like mints and sweet flowers.
• All of the enemies in Kaze and the Wild Masks are fruits and vegetables mutated into monsters by the Evil Sorcerer Typhoon.
• Kingdom Hearts: The Black and White Fungus Heartless.
• Kolibri: The corrupting crystal that fell from space and is turning Earth's own life against it like a cancer affected plants as well as animals. Buds that shoot projectiles and carnivorous blossoms that try to devour Kolibri are the main two examples seen.
• The Legend of Zelda has the Deku Babas, which attack Link with their mouths but can be defeated by cutting their thin stems. The Wind Waker has the Boko Babas instead, while The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has Baba Serpents, which keep coming at Link even with their stems cut off and Twilight versions, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks has Fire Babas, and Skyward Sword has a smart, yellow-colored version called Quadro Baba.
• The Munchables: The Space Pirates are all based on food and other edible plant stuff. It also proves to be their downfall, because why would anyone want to invade a planet home to the biggest eaters in the galaxy when their entire army is edible?
• Neptunia: If your enemy isn't a classic video game mook, a fear-striking mech, or an Eldritch Abomination, this is probably the kind of mook you're fighting.
• Pikmin is about leading an army of the titular plant/animal-like creatures to ensure your survival and prosperity.
• Plants vs. Zombies:
  • Inverted in the first game, where you'll grow an army of plants to defend your home against invading zombies — in this case, you're the one sending the Plant Mooks out against your foes.
  • Played straight in Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, which introduces the Weeds — the plant counterparts to the Spawnable Zombies and emeries for players on the Zombie side.
• In Ragnarok Online, there are the spore and red spore monsters, which resemble mushrooms with faces and their caps pop open to reveal a huge mouth full of teeth.
• Sakura Wars 3: Is Paris Burning?: The Great Oak Tree, the Phantoms of Paris' base of operations, as well as Salu's, has Avalanches and Thors, the latter of which is named after the Norse God of Thunder.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab features a parasitic organism that grows inside the Alaskan Bull Worm's stomach in the "Alaskan Belly Trouble" level. It is a plant-like enemy that spit wads of slime at SpongeBob.
• Super Lesbian Animal RPG has Freaky Flowers, plantlike monsters native to the Uncanny Valley and mutated by it's mana radiation. They attack with snaring vines to disable party members.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Super Mario Bros.: The game marked the debut of Piranha Plant, a carnivorous plant that often pops up from pipes. In this game, they're colored green, but in later installments they're red unless they're part of a special variant. Subsequent games in the series also introduce variants like one which shoots fireballs, one which jumps and then slowly descends, and even one which shoots a particular project (ink at the screen, mud at the floor, or poison at invisible terrain). The Piranha Plant's recognition led to its inclusion as a DLC playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • Super Mario Bros. 2:
    • Pokey, a sentient xerophyte creature made of round cacti sections; hitting its lower pieces will reduce the enemy's size but keep it alive, while hitting the head will kill it instantly. In this game, it's colored green and can be stepped onto its head; in later games, it is colored yellow or orange and is no longer safe to attempt Cranium Ride on it. Both types are featured in Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Color Splash.
    • Panser is a lotus-shaped plant that shoots fireballs (bigger than those of Piranha Plants) upward. The gray and green ones simply aim skyward, the red ones lean their shots at the side closest to the player, and pink ones move sideways and intend to hit the player. A successor species (the Volcano Lotus) appears later in Super Mario World, shooting smaller fireballs but releasing up to four of them at the same time.
  • Super Mario Bros. 3: Several plant mooks debut in this game.
    • The Nipper is a white Piranha Plant infant that either remains in its position or moves by making short leaps; when Mario or Luigi jumps past it, the enemy will perform a larger jump to attempt to bite them.
    • The Muncher is a strong, black colored plant that never moves from its position; when grouped in rows, they act as living Spikes of Doom (a P Switch will turn them in coins in this game, but in later ones the only way to deal with them is with POW blocks).
    • The Ptooie is a Piranha Plant that plays juggling with a Spike Ball. Some specimens play their scene while standing still, while others manage to keep balance with their object while moving sideways.
  • Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island:
    • The Needlenose is a single-headed Pokey that bounces over a stretching cactus base. Strangely, some are dropped from above by balloons.
    • A special variant of Piranha Plant called Wild Ptooie Piranha appears. Despite its name, it has no direct connection with the Ptooies. Instead of juggling with Spike Balls, it shoots Needlenoses at Yoshi and Baby Mario. It takes three egg shots to be defeated.
  • Super Mario 64: Most Piranha Plants in this game are sleeping. Mario (and the other characters in the Nintendo DS remake) have to walk slowly when approaching them to avoid waking them up (and hitting them while asleep is the only way to defeat them).
  • Super Mario Galaxy: A purple-headed species known as Spiny Piranha Plant appears. It will perform a slow, but strong pound at Mario with its own head. As it tries to recover, you have to stomp it to defeat it.
  • New Super Mario Bros. Wii: The Bramball is a sentient plant with a Pokey-like head and arc-shaped thorny legs and paws similar to suction cups. It moves around by carefully bowing the hind-placed leg forward, always make sure to step onto a ground that is at the same level as that where the enemy itself is standing. It makes a return in New Super Mario Bros. U.
  • Super Mario 3D World: The game introduces the Piranha Creepers, which have long, spiky stems which are harmful upon contact. The ones that are awake (colored purple) will slither around the ground or the air back and forth, while the asleep ones (colored blue) will remain static and will only retract as Mario and his friends attack them (if attack ceases, then the Creeper will extend back and then resume rest). Both types are featured in Super Mario Maker 2 as well.
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder: The game introduces the Taily, a creature modeled after pitcher plants which hangs from the ceiling and have an elongated vine. Mario and his friends can pull this vine, allowing them to swing back and forth before jumping forward with great momentum. Tailies are not exactly docile, as they can drop Spike Balls and potentially harm whoever is hanging with the vines.
• Warden: Melody of the Undergrowth: One enemy type encountered in the game is a living creeper vine that wields a weapon.

Western Animation

• Ben 10: The giant Mycelium in "Camp Fear" has an army of Mushroom Mooks.
• Darkwing Duck: Bushroot tends to use plants as Mooks because he's a plant duck himself.
• Ewoks: The page illustration are of the Fftssfft from "To Save Deej". Known as "dandelion warriors", they are a semi-sapient botanical species characterized by sharp yellow quills.
• The Herculoids: When a glowing meteor lands on their home world, the titular creatures find themselves battling common, harmless flora suddenly gone monstrous, aggressive and hostile.
• Josie And The Pussy Cats: Doctor Greenthumb sought to create an army of plant-creatures in the episode "A Greenthumb Is Not A Goldfinger." His Evil Plan never made it out of beta.
• Loonatics Unleashed: The Apocazons can custom-grow plants to meet any need. Some of these extend kudzu-like tendrils to ensnare adversaries, while others can jettison toxic thorns. One variety even manages to bring down the Loonatics aircraft.
• Rocky and Bullwinkle: The Pottsylvanian spies Boris and Natasha attempt to subjugate the United States by introducing the Pottsylvania Creeper to American soil. The creeper can withstand any abuse meant to kill or disable it, and it soon launches a missile made of its own tendrils that spreads thousands of its seeds across the nation. Oh, and the creeper also eats people.
• Steven Universe: Steven, like his mother before him, has control over plants that allows him to create mobile creatures from them. Steven discovered this in the episode "Watermelon Steven", when he accidentally grows a bunch of watermelons seeds into watermelon people that look like him. Unfortunately, they're only sentient enough to see people as threats, regardless of Steven's orders, at least until one of them sacrifices itself to stop the fighting. Steven convinces the Steven-Melons to leave Beach City, and we find out what became of them in the season 3 premiere "Super Watermelon Island".
• SWAT Kats: In the episode "Destructive Nature", Dr. Viper takes over an entire skyscraper using mutant plant creatures which he refers to as Plantimals. His mushroom monster assistant in the episode "Katastrophe" may also count.

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