The Plant Creation Package
Use these links (full list at the bottom) to create plants like those seen in Gnomestones campaigns. The tools do not have to be used in any particular order.
Use the name generator to pick a name using this amazing site. I like to start with the elven names but there are many good choices. Roll a d10 to pick a name from a list.
Name generator - https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/elf-names.php
Use the color generator to find a compelling palate. Choose the number of colors by rolling a d4 or d6.
Color generator - https://randomwordgenerator.com/color.php
The biome list provides a the basis for the plant's habitat. Pick one or blend two. You can also narrow down the ideal growing conditions by rolling on the weather chart. If you'd like to pick a specific growing or flowering season for this plant, roll a d4 for season or a d8 for Gnomestones month.
Biome list - http://www.dungeoneering.net/d100-lists-terrain-types/
Weather - https://external-preview.redd.it/YSCkZL_vDT-Jbg
Roll a d6 for the plant's rarity. My table is 1, 2, 3 = common; 4, 5 = uncommon; 6 = rare
The descriptive words add unique aspects to solidify the plant's identity. Roll once on each list.
Descriptive words - http://www.dungeoneering.net/d100-list-fantasy-name-builder/
The potion chart, scryfall, and 10k magical effects are provided as resources in case you want to give the plant special powers. There are many ways to generate this aspect, including rolling on spell lists provided in core rulebooks. These links also provided extra opportunities to contextualize the plant's identity.
Potion chart - https://blog.d4caltrops.com/2019/05/d100-table-one-hundred
Scryfall - https://scryfall.com
10k Magic effects - 10,000 Magical Effects
Like most systems where you use charts to generate outcomes, you're more likely to get good results here if you liberally use a GM's creative filter. If you take every roll verbatim, you're plants will feel random and all the same. Synthesizing the results into a compelling aesthetic and interactive game piece is your job.
Example 1: Katabar
Below I will use the plant creation package to make a plant from scratch, showing my improvisations along the way.
Starting with the name, I click Neutral names on the elf generator, get ten neutral names, and roll a 4 on a d10. Entry 4 is Katar Elafiel, which is a perfectly good name, except Katar sounds like Qatar, and I've used the -afiel suffix recently. So I make a consonant roll (assign each number to one consonant) on a D20, and get a 2, indicating B. With these answers I create a suitable name, Katabar.
Moving on to colors. I get a 1 on the d4, and the random color generator offers me hexcolor #0E294B, which the site claims is Gentian Blue. This sparks some mystery for Katabar, because this is an odd single-tone color for a plant. Why would a plant be this way?
Hopefully the biome list will add some clarity. I get a 97, which means wetlands. I like it, I need some more marsh plants. It's not a very memorable marsh without some great plants, regardless of number of shambling hulks with which you attack the players. I roll again and get 40, or hollow, which I keep in mind. Hollow could mean a lot of things.
I roll a d8 and get an 8, which indicates the month of Kvist, or early winter. I roll a 2 on a d20 which indicates misfortune, and I'm beginning to think that this plant needs to be protected overwinter to use the next year. I roll a d6 and with a 4 find that the plant is uncommon, which supports the unique growing conditions idea.
Time for the descriptive words. I roll an 83 and 49, showing the words swift and march (one away from marsh). Interesting, perhaps this plant swiftly migrates if its area gets too cold in winter? I rolled again and got the word solid, but I've decided it's time to move on, I have almost all the details I need.
I do a flurry of other rolls on the special power charts. The mushroom chart gives me a plant that improves strength. On Scryfall I clicked Random Card, and got Merchant of the Vale, which makes me think that the plant is valued by merchants. The 10,000 magic effects tell me that someone's house is turning into coral, and with that I'm done.
Finished product:
Katabar can be found by determined explorers under the right conditions. The plant grows in temperate freshwater wetlands, but it is only visible from the surface in the Fall. As the weather begins to grow colder, Katabar emerges from shallow marsh bottoms in stalks that are deep-blue and hard as a rock. Though the hard frame suggests a rugged plant, Katabar is quite particular with its growing conditions. The plants cannot tolerate frozen water. Just before the marsh surface freezes, the Katabar plant uproots itself and walks off. Though a rare sight, whole colonies of Katabar have been witnessed hopping along the countryside in this way, looking like children's hopping sticks or frozen nematodes. Where it retires is an utter mystery, but without fail the Katabar will emerge once more in the Fall, so it must find some place to go.
For herbologists, Katabar represents a tumultuous source of promise and frustration. If the Katabar can be properly coaxed into remaining in its place until the water freezes, each stalk will produce one large, succulent fruit of a similar deep-blue color. After the fruit is fully-grown, it falls off the stalk, and the plant promptly dies. The Katabar fruit is usually lost when breaks through the ice, but can be harvested successfully with vigilance and ingenuity. This commitment can be worth much, as Katabar fruit contains delicious juice highly valued in city markets for its flavor and for minor invigorating properties. As with most plants, druids speak of lesser-known uses for Katabar and likely use it as potion ingredient. However, these techniques are not corroborated and would certainly require many years of careful practical study.
Well there you have it, it turned out pretty good. Hopefully it didn't feel like I skipped too many steps.
Example 2:
Well I'm back for more plant action. I have a problem. Let's use the tools but in a different order.
I start with the biome and get silt beds and beach (I'm using ceramic dice with bluebirds painted on them). The color palate is three shades of grey-blue and a bright red that feels like the flowers of the plant.
I get the descriptive words 'burnt' and 'hold'. I also get 'king's mirror', which I save for a later usage. I wonder if this plant is dangerous, and when I roll low on a relational check, it looks like the bright red buds pose some sort of danger. A roll on 10,000 effects gives me something about the ground splitting open.
Here things take two left turns. The first is when I decided to roll on the Texas Riparian Association's Plant Field Guide, and the dice take me to page 30, American Beautyberry. The second is when I remember to roll for rarity and get a 6, meaning rare or legendary. Things have taken a drastic turn. Finally we need a name, a step that I saved for last this time. I use the naga name generator page, roll a couple names, put them together, and finish the process.
Sashnasha - Once upon a time, before the great evil was tempered from the world and people still lived in holes in the ground, there was a good King in the land of Bania. The King was a fierce warrior and fair ruler, and his people were not quite so scared of monsters and demons as they could have been. The only thing the King lacked was a family, for he was so busy protecting the kingdom that he had not the time to look for partnership. His solitude persisted long after the death of the old king, and his advisors fretted and wrung their hands each time the heirless king boldly charged into battle.
Once, while skimshing against monsters on the Banian Coast, the king was separated from his warriors, and they could find no trace of him. He remained missing for five Good Days, and the Banian people dispaired. The priests prepared to proclaim the king's death, but as people gathered for his bell-ringing ceremony, he appeared. He stumbled into the courtyard, bleeding and sun-scarred and holding a flower of incredible vibrancy like rays of a sunset. He was raving, and when the people listened they realized he was raving about love. - to be continued...
Plant Creation Package
Name generator - https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/elf-names.php
Color generator - https://randomwordgenerator.com/color.php
Biome list - http://www.dungeoneering.net/d100-lists-terrain-types/
Weather - https://external-preview.redd.it/YSCkZL_vDT-Jbg
Descriptive words - http://www.dungeoneering.net/d100-list-fantasy-name-builder/
Potion chart - https://blog.d4caltrops.com/2019/05/d100-table-one-hundred
Scryfall - https://scryfall.com
10k Magic effects - 10,000 Magical Effects
Bonus:
Here are some other sources for interesting fantasy plants.
Mushrooms - https://www.dndspeak.com/2020/08/19/100-mushrooms-and-their-effects/
Crowd-sourced fantasy plants - https://chartopia.d12dev.com/chart/37822/
Plant generation with structure - https://coffeebased.tumblr.com/post/112214053322