Table of Contents
Berries is the shared common name for plants whose fruit have a strong medicinal effect on pokémon and frequently humans, despite the plants having no common origin. In addition to restorative purposes, berries are used in cooking or as rewards while training pokémon. While fresh berries are the most potent (and often tastiest), many kinds of berry can be dried and retain some of their benefit. There is a loose distinction drawn between those berries that act fast enough to be used in pokémon battles and those that don't.
Battle Berries
Cherri
Cherri plants are hemiparasitic vines that favour deciduous trees as hosts. When not fruiting they are most easily identified by the thick green stem descending the trunk - or more rarely thick low curving branches - of their host. Their leaves are flat and normally tiled against branches. Cherri plants produce dense clusters of highly fragrant white flowers in early autumn and fruit from mid autumn to early spring depending on local climate.
Cherri berries are 1 to 2 cm across, bright red and contain a small pip. Since they grow high above the ground they can be difficult to harvest although this is slightly mitigated by each cluster containing a dozen or more. Cherri berries are one of the few berries not to lose potency when dried, which combined with each plant producing so many balances out their seasonal nature. Their flesh is very spicy when fresh, slightly milder once dried, and a common cooking spice in Sehtoan cuisine. Consuming a single berry cures most paralysis.
Chesto
Chesto plants are tall trees that favour the cooler parts of the island. Young trees are often mistaken for other plants when not fruiting but mature trees are easily identified by their distinctive retiform bark. Since chesto trees take almost a decade to reach maturity they are rarely farmed but saplings are often planted individually in gardens. Chesto flowers are dull catkins of pale green florets drooping from outer branches in winter when the wind can spread the pollen.
Chesto berries are large fruit 8 to 10 cm across with a tough fibrous skin that softens as they ripen in spring. The berries are shaped like a spinning top with a dull blue upper portion and tan base. Inside the skin the fruit is split into six segments surrounded by a milky fluid. Berries are harvested by hitting with a long stick or using Flying pokémon and roasted segments soaked in hot chesto milk are common street vendor food. The flesh has a distinctive dry flavour and eating a segment or drinking the milk cures sleep.
Leppa
Leppa plants are small, deciduous trees found wild in the non-coastal parts of Sehto and also commonly grown in orchards. Their foliage is dense and flowers form on inner as well as outer branches, meaning that harvest requires significant climbing and is often pokémon assisted. While some orchards adjust growing conditions to lengthen the season wild leppa plants flower in spring to summer and produce fruit in summer and autumn. Leppa flowers are pale pink with five widely separated petals and occur in small clumps.
Leppa berries are 2 to 5 cm across with thin red and yellow mottled skin and crunchy flesh. Wild leppa berries tend to be slower growing and thus have a more concentrated flavour than farmed berries, making them significantly more expensive. While dried leppa berries are common in trail mix they lose their medicinal properties; fortunately the fruit stores well without this if kept in a cool dark place and is readily available out of season. Pulped leppa berries are sweetened and mixed with carbonated water to make leppanade, a common beverage. Leppa berries restore energy.
Lum
Lum plants are unassuming small trees known mostly for their isolationist nature. The usefulness of their berries have prompted many attempts to farm them, however while lum plants can be grown in a variety of climates they tend to sicken if grown in close proximity to others of their kin. Researchers have been unable to determine why; the prevailing theory is that lum plants produce chemicals that hinder growth of their rivals, potentially to prevent disease. Large, waxy pale flowers are produced intermittently throughout the year on the tips of branches. The blooms are strongly scented to lure the Bug type pokémon that pollinate the plant.
Lum berries are 3 to 4 cm across with a slightly waxy green skin. The flesh is very firm and slightly rubbery unless the berry is overripe and has a somewhat tart flavour not typically favoured by many humans or pokémon. The berry is very nutritious and the stone germinates readily after passing through a pokémon's digestive tract. Despite not being used in cooking lum berries are highly sought after for being able to cure all status aliments while fresh. Dried lum berries tend to only be effective on milder aliments such as confusion; this coupled with their relative rarity and irregular flowering makes lum berries expensive.
Oran
Oran plants are waist high shrubs found across most of the island. Their foliage is very dense with small oval leaves that seem to grow haphazardly. With moderate trimming the bushes can be grown into short hedges and are common garden plants in areas that don't have winter frosts. Oran flowers are pink to pale purple with a faint sweet perfume and are produced whenever the plant has gathered enough nutrients: in rich soil this may be every few months, while in poorer conditions intervals can be up to two years.
Oran berries are 1 to 2 cm across and bright blue. Each bush produces dozens and the wild berries are an important food source for many pokémon while farmed or garden berries are made into jam. Oran berries have restorative properties and can staunch bleeding and heal cuts and bruises, although they can only cure minor injuries. However this is generally sufficient for restoring pokémon after minor scuffles.
Persim
Persim plants are medium trees that like sunny, well watered soils. Their leaves are have fine hairs over the lower side that gives them a blueish colour when seen from below. Their orange flowers have four petals and produce a distinctive sweet scent. Since persim plants dislike shade the trees are often grown ringing orchards of other berry trees.
Persim berries are 4 to 5 cm across and a rich pink colour and very soft when fully ripened. While the ripe berries are sweet, for most of their growth persim berries are hard and bitter. The final ripening requires several days of bright sunlight and in the wild entire tree's worth can be lost if the season is extremely overcast or if the plant is overshadowed by neighbouring plants. While ripe berries only last a few days, the fully grown but still bitter fruit can be stored for over a month. Persim berries cure confusion.
Rawst
Rawst plants are small ground huggers that favour warm areas and low rainfall. The leaves are thick, glossy and have a purplish tint believed to protect offer protection and are arranged in a spiral around the core of the plant. As new leaves grow in the centre the older ones lengthen and flatten outwards. Flowering can happen at any time of year and the pale yellow blooms grow on a short spike rising from the centre of the rawst plant. The appealing shape and colour of the leaves and low water requirements make rawst plants popular to grow indoors in pots.
Rawst berries are 3 to 4 cm across and very soft with a sky blue colour. Since the plant must be at least 40cm across to begin producing berries and the larger, more effective ones require older plants the potted rawst plants found in homes rarely provide useful berries. The pulp is rather bitter and produces a cooling effect when applied to skin. When eaten or crushed and applied rawst berries cure burns.
Other Berries
Pomeg
Pomeg plants are trees with distinctive swollen trunks that grow in harsh conditions. Their comparatively small straggly branches and tendency to shed leaves during drought, starvation or excessive heat lends them a skeletal appearance. The tree stores water and nutrients in its enlarged trunk and stymies attempts to tap this reservoir by oozing sticky maroon resin when damaged. Heavy rains prompt the production of scarlet blossoms with feathery petals.
Pomeg berries are 12 to 15 cm across and have a tough, unpalatable outer coating. Breaking open the berry reveals several dozen large crimson arils (a tiny seed embedded in a pea-sized skin of juicy flesh) linked by a pale membrane. The arils have a metallic flavour reminiscent of blood; indeed, pomeg berries are known to attract Blood-type pokémon. This trait, along with their sinister appearance and red colouring of the berries, flowers and sap led to the Kyza considering Pomeg plants cursed.
Qualot
Qualot plants are shore dwelling plants that tolerate fresh or brackish water. A mature qualot plant can reach a metre high and several metres wide. Their leaves are ribbon shaped with a pointed tip to drain rainwater and their flowers a pale green tassel held clear from the plant on long tendrils. Qualot plants are challenging to cultivate due to requiring silty ground and sizable water canals for their roots to grow into.
Qualot berries are 8 to 10 cm long and shaped like fat cigars that taper from a vivid pink middle to yellow tips. As the berry grows the tendrils that once supported the flower droop downwards until the submerged and the berry will only fully ripen underwater. The pulpy inner flesh is dotted with small seeds and rapidly causes numbness and mild paralysis of the mouth if eaten by land animals; fish are immune and the plants main means of dispersion. When applied to skin the pulp is a topical anesthetic that takes a few minutes to reach full potency and lasts approximately half an hour.
Tamato
Tamato plants are a climbing plant strongly suspected to be a natural hybrid of wiki and tomato plants. Despite this attempts to artificially cross the two have yet to produce similar plants and some biologists still doubt their hybrid status, despite confirming the close relation to wiki plants. Tamato plants require some form of support either from stakes or another plant. Flowers vary from orange to deep pink and have six widely splayed petals surrounding a tubular centre.
Tamato berries vary widely from 5 to 10 cm across and are bright red when fully ripe and have a smooth skin covered with fleshy nodules. The thin skin is a little tough and generally removed if the berry is being eaten raw but softens when cooked. The reddish-purple flesh is pulpy and its taste resembles a spicy tomato, the source of the berry's common name. Unlike most berries tamato berries do not seem to have notable medicinal qualities for pokémon and its status as a pokémon berry is thus called into question by some individuals. Despite this the fruit are still highly sought after by wild pokémon as well as being a notable ingredient in Sehtoan cuisine.
Wiki
Wiki plants are woody climbing vines that favour the warmer parts of Sehto. In the wild they use rocks and dead trees as their primary support; wiki farms use wooden frames raised high enough for pickers to comfortably work beneath. Wiki flowers are delicate blue blossoms that grow on thin tendrils extending from the stem of the vine and held clear of the leaves.
Wiki berries are 8 to 10 cm across with a vividly purple skin covered in small lumps that contain the seeds. The skin is thin but rubbery and generally considered inedible. The inner flesh is soft enough to be consumed with a spoon, somewhat tangy, and fades from a darker purple hue at the edges to a translucent blue in the centre. While the fruit does accelerate healing it acts too slowly to be useful in battle or emergency situations. However compounds extracted from wiki berries are the primary ingredient in healing potions and wiki berries are therefore widely farmed.
[WIP]
- Pecha Berry: Cures Poison
- Aspear Berry: Cures Frozen
- Persim Berry: Cures Confusion
- Sitrus Berry: Restores more health
Pecha plants are moderately sized trees with silvery-green foliage that grow well in moist areas. Purple flowers, fruit in summer, neutralises biological poisons.
Pinap plants spiky cups, seeds spread by Girafarig.