Chapter 5 – I’m a Solanaceous Woman
When I was a high school girl in Japan, I could never have imagined that I would become a saint in this fantasy world, and then changed to the plant monster route as an Alraune. Fortunately, the high school girl me --- Murasaki Ayame, was quite familiar with plants.
I was an anime, manga, and video game enthusiast, but I kept it a secret at school. I was what known as a closet otaku. Instead, I was always reading books at school.
I might had been mistaken for a literary girl, but most of the books I read were book with illustrations. Something like animal encyclopedia, fish encyclopedia, dinosaur encyclopedia, etc. Among them, the one I read and liked the most was plants encyclopedia.
I only read them at school during break to kill time at first, but before I knew it, I had become a plant-loving girl who enjoyed looking at flowers. Then again, it was just a hobby, so please don’t expect me to know about anything complicated.
Back to the previous topic, the high school girl me had at least heard a plant monster called Alraune. I was an otaku, after all
Although I recognized it as an imaginary thing, I had actually read about a plant similar to Alraune in a book. That's right, I'm talking about Mandrake. The Mandrake plant certainly did exist in the Earth.
In many fantasy stories, Mandrake is also called Mandragora, and is often used as an ingredient to make magic potions. It's said that when Mandragora is pulled out of the ground, it will scream so loud, enough to make those nearby faint.
Speaking about Mandragora, I saw it appeared in famous movies about a certain bespectacled wizard.
The other important piece of information about Mandrake is that it belongs to Solanaceae family. But why did I suddenly remember about such information? I guess it's because there’s no resemblance between Mandrake and eggplant, at all.
Personally, I think that Alraune is a relative of Mandrake. Both of them are plant monsters the grow on the ground and all. In addition, when I was a high school girl in Japan, I had also read some articles which explained that Alraune and Mandrake were actually the same. My point is just like Mandragora, Alraune also belongs to Solanaceae family....
Does this mean I'm some kind of eggplant!? No matter how much I like eggplant, I don't want be an eggplant myself as expected.
Eggplants are supposed to be Amphoteric which means having both stamens and pistils in one flower. However, I couldn't find stamen anywhere on my body. I guess the evolution of the pistil causes the stamen to degenerate and disappear, resulting in a Parthenogenetic flower.
In other words, my gender is undoubtedly female, right? My body looks like that of a female human, but since I'm also a plant and a flower, I wasn't absolutely sure about my gender.
Thank goodness I’m a Parthenogenetic flower. If I was an Amphoteric flower, I would be a woman and a man. I, a former saint and a high school girl in the previous life, am not prepared to have both sexes. I would really hate it. Please give me a break!
For your information, there are Angiosperms with Parthenogenetic flowers, which is the characteristic of Gymnosperms. For example; sponge gourd, watermelon, cucumber, etc.
I thought I didn’t have a gender since I also couldn’t find a pistil anywhere. However, I realized that this female body is the pistil itself. I mean, something that grows in the middle of corolla can only be a pistil, right?
There should be an ovary somewhere if this female body is really a pistil. For normal flowers, the ovary is usually located at the base of the pistil. I guess it's the area around my lower abdomen for me. Inside the ovary, there should be an ovule that is the origin of the seed.
If it's too confusing, the ovary is the uterus and the ovule is the egg in humans. This reminds me of biology class in my previous life.
I tried to touch the area around my stomach
The place where a child is made is the same place as in humans. It's a strange coincidence. If it were pollinated, would it become a fruit like a cucumber or a watermelon? What would happen to me at that time?
I tried to imagine how the ovary --- the area around abdomen, would swell up after pollination.
I would look like a pregnant human woman, but I'm a plant. My belly will continue to grow bigger, and eventually, my upper body --- the human body, will be absorbed by the fruit and disappear.
No, I don't like that.
I'm sure I will be no longer me.
That’s right, I just need to avoid pollination.
I also still can't accept the fact that I'm actually just a pistil, so let's put everything in the back of my mind for the time being.
When I was feeling depressed, I hear a buzzing sound from a distance. I could understand without looking that there was a bee approaching.
Ugh, I hate bee. They sting and it hurts a lot. But since I'm no longer a human, it probably won't be that bad even if I get stung. In addition, as long as I'm a flower, I can separate bee from my life.
If you think about it, it's only natural for bee or the other insects to approach a flower like me in search of nectar. I mean, it's strange that no insects got lured until now. I thought that perhaps my body was secreting pheromones that insects did not like.
Hmm!?
Hold on....
Somehow, the buzzing sound keeps getting louder like that of a helicopter.
Not long after I thought so, it appeared ---- a bee as big as adult human.
If I remember it correctly, it's a monster called Zornbiene.
No, that’s not important right now!
Speaking of bees, they are famous for their pollination activities, right?
When worker bees collect nectar and pollen from a flower, some of the pollen from the stamen of that flower will stick to their body, be carried over from one flower to another, and sometimes it comes off and fall into the pistil. Therefore, even if it's a Parthenogenetic flower with only a pistil, it can still obtain the pollen from the stamen of other flower and pollinate, thanks to the bees. This is called cross-pollination, and fruit farmers often keep beehives near their field for this purpose.
Simply put, bees pollinate the flowers as they move from one flower to another to gather food. This is why bees are called pollinators.
Hmm, wait a moment....
H-Hey, a time-out!
Priiiit!
You there, stop moving!
I’m telling you to stop moving!
I mean, please, I beg you, don't get any closer!
You are here for my honey, right?
You are going to touch my body, aren't you?
No, you can't!
My instinct as a female flower tells me that you're flying around with the pollen from other male flowers on your body. I will be pollinated if you touch my body. I'm a female flower and a pistil itself, after all. I absolutely hate it!
NOOO!!
It’s coming this way!
It’s flying straight at me!
It’s also got pollen on its body just as I thought!
This is not good!
This is seriously bad!
I will be pollinated at this rate!!!