Flora of Toril

All the normal earthly plants can be found on Toril, but there are some plants unique to the setting.

Blueleaf
Recognizable by the eerie, gleaming blue color of their many-pointed leaves, blueleafs (not “blueleaves”) bend in winds or under ice rather than breaking, often forming snow tunnels that shelter winter travelers. Blueleafs grow close together in thick stands, reaching 40 feet in height but rarely attaining thick trunks.
Blueleaf wood is durable, and the sap and crushed leaves yield a vivid blue dye much favored in cloak making in the North. When burned, it yields beautiful leaping blue flames (prized in inns and taverns as “mood” illumination for tale-tellers and minstrels). Cut blueleaf has a blue hue when “green” and a gray-blue color when dried.Blueleaf is found all over the north.

Duskwood
Duskwood trees grow straight and tall, reaching 60’ feet in height. Their trunks are dark, smooth, and bare; all of their tiny branches are in a crown at the top of each tree. They have slim silvery leaves. Their name comes from the dark, eerie appearance of stands of duskwoods. Under their black bark is smoky grey wood that is as hard as iron, and resistant to fire (smoldering rather than blazing, so that they survive many forest fires and the axes of woodcutters seeking firewood). It could be found growing all over Faerûn. They grow in densely packed groves which ended up looking a bit eerie.

Chuichu
Chuichu trees are found mainly in the forests of the Dalelands. They resemble miniature hickories, about three feet tall. Chuichu trees produce cone-shaped yellow berries that dissolve in water to make a delicious, cinnamon-flavored beverage.

Helmthorn
A vinelike ground shrub that sometimes cloaks other bushes and dead trees, helmthorn has dark, waxy green leaves and bristling black thorns. As long as human hands, these sharp, durable thorns are often used as crude needles or dart points. Helmthorn berries are indigo in hue, edible (tart in flavor), and often harvested even when frozen or withered for use in winemaking. Helmthorn is very hardy and grows throughout Faerûn, providing food for many.

Shadowtop
The soaring giants of Faerûnian forests, shadowtops can grow 2 feet a year and top out at 90 feet. A full-grown shadowtop flares out to a diameter of 10 feet or more at its base, its trunk surrounded by many pleatlike ridges. Shadowtops are named for the dense clusters of feathery leaves at the tops of their trunks. Shadowtop leaves are irregular in shape and have copper undersides and deep green upper surfaces.
Shadow-wood is fibrous and tough, but unsuitable for carving or structural work because under stress it splits down its length into splayed fibers. These fibers are valued in rope making (a few added to the twist improves the strength and durability of a completed coil) and burns slowly but cleanly, generating a very hot fire with little smoke. This makes it ideal for cooking.
Shadow-wood is much used in the making of magical staffs, rods, and wands. Shadowtops are found in all humid areas across Faerûn.

Silverbark
Silverbark trees flourish in wet ground and deep shadowy ravines. They have thin trunks three to four inches in diameter, are straight, and seldom grow more than a dozen feet tall— serving the poor as poles, staves, and (with whittled points hardened in a slow fire) spears or battle-stakes. Silverbark is plentiful and grows in thickets. Its silvery bark crumbles and pulls loose easily; an exposed tree dries out thoroughly, becoming brittle and weak, unsuitable for lance shafts, fence rails, or building work, within a year. Its large, oval, pointed-tipped leaves are deep red (purple at the roots), waxy, and durable; they are sometimes used to wrap small game, or to carry twigs.

Suth
Suth are graybark trees with olive-green leaves. They grow almost horizontally and then double back to angle in another direction. If a few suth trees grow together, their branches intertwine until they are inextricably entangled, forming a screen or wall barring passage to all things that can’t fly over the tangled trees or scuttle under their lowest branches. Suth leaves are long, soft, and fluffy, but spike-ended.
Suth wood is very hard and durable, so hard that it’s difficult to work without the finest tools. Thin sheets of this wood retain astonishing strength for decades, and thus are favored for use in book covers. Suth is also the preferred wood for shields since it never shatters and doesn’t catch fire if soaked in water before battle. A crushing blow might crack a suth wood shield but won’t cause it to fly apart. Suth wood is naturally a reddish brown.
The name of this tree may be a corruption of the word “south.” Suth are found along the edges of the Shaar, in the woods of Chondath, and farther south in Faerûn.

Weirwood
Weir trees resemble oaks but have leaves that are brown (with a silver sheen) on their uppers and velvety black beneath. If undisturbed, weir trees grow into huge, many-branched forest giants. Weirwood won’t ignite in normal (non-magical) fire and is resilient and durable. It’s favored in the making of musical instruments because of the unmistakable warm, clear tone it imparts. Weirwood is a dark brown when dried. Weirwood can be used as a replacement for oak or holly in any spell. It grows throughout Faerûn but is very rare. Most trees are now found deep in large forests and actively protected by dryads, treants, druids, and rangers.

Zalantar
Often called blackwood in the North because of its jet-black wood and bark, the zalantar tree has a central root and eight or more trunks that branch out from the root at ground level like the splayed fingers of a hand. The trees may reach 60 feet in height, but are usually half that. Their leaves are white through beige. Zalantar wood is strong yet easily worked and sees much use in southern buildings and the making of wagons, litters, and wheels. Southern wizards and sorcerers use durable and handsome zalantar wood almost exclusively in the making of rods, staffs, and wands.
This subtropical species is rarely seen north of the Shaar. It is plentiful along the shores of Chult and the southern coasts of Faerûn and seems to grow in any terrain short of mountainous.