Plants of Red Dead Redemption II

Loopy's RDR2 plant analysis blog!

[rdr2plantblog]

Introduction

Hello! Welcome to The Plants of Red Dead Redemption II, AKA, rdr2 plant blog. I'm Loopy and I'll be posting ongoing snippets of my rdr2 plant accuracy analysis and random commentary here.

WHY THIS BLOG?

So as to keep my thoughts organized mostly. Everything about Red Dead Redemption 2 is considered a masterpiece by many; its environment is no different, and yet it's spared only passing mention by so many critics and fans!  Both the game’s interactive plants and its “environment assets” are endlessly fascinating to me. Although I’m only an amateur botanist, I thought I’d take a look at the classic question of “is rdr2 accurate?” and throw in my two cents from a botanical perspective. How am I going about gauging that accuracy? Same as any old hack looking to get clickbait attention:

NUMERICAL RATING SYSTEM

Because I like a nice neat little numbered rating, I’m rating each plant (not including the rdo exclusive ones, most trees, or orchids) for accuracy on:

Growth habit (does it look true-to-life at a glance?)

Fine details and diagnostic features (bracts, leaf shape, flower definition)

Proper biome distribution (is it found in an equivalent habitat to its real-life counterpart?)

Proper historical placement (was it introduced by human activity? When? Where?)

Each criterion is worth 2 points for of a total of 8.

Has this taken me a long time? Absolutely. But I've been thinking about tackling this project since the game came out, and its release and the ease of interaction with its plant life is what really kicked me into a pointed interest in botany. I figured I'd pay it back by nitpicking everything I possibly can about a field I have a lot of fun studying in my free time.

Thanks for stopping by!

[rdr2plantblog]

Minor update + Changes

Since I've been inputting my rating system (so far) into a proper excel sheet, you'll probably see some of my numerical ratings change because I decided to give a point for biome placement or take one away for historical range here and there. It's nothing super big but I wanted to make sure I've got a more consistent point system other than my own whims.

You'll notice in my data sheet some red areas which I haven't gotten around to making an analysis for. Those are my major to-do's. Otherwise I think this project is pretty close to wrapping up!

Thanks for following along so far, and stick around! Still more to come when I get time :)

[rdr2plantblog]

Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus

“Yellow rabbit brush”

What a lovely shrub! I chose a younger, more well-watered plant for my comparison photo just for visual clarity’s sake, so it doesn’t necessarily look as 1-to-1 as my other photos, growth habit wise. Regardless, Chrysothamnus is a genus of desert and chaparral dwellers everywhere west of the Rocky Mountains. This species has a few individuals who bear the honor(?) of living with the highest recorded levels of gamma radioactivity in living tissue, thanks to the US of A’s nuclear testing in New Mexico for the past half century. If that’s not enough to convince you that this plant is cool as fuck, I don’t know what will.

As is custom for rdr2’s “background shrub assets”, this Chrysothamnus has little to go on for diagnostic details, aside from vague impressions of Asteraceae-looking disc florets with protruding stamens and styles, and an absence of ligules (daisy “petals”). Its presence in this desert environment is pretty widespread just like its real-life counterpart, though ingame it can be seen in the gypsum/limestone equivalent environments more commonly.

            My rating: 6/8

[rdr2plantblog]

Arctostaphylos viscida

“Whiteleaf Manzanita”

Arctostaphylos is a genus of about 100 species (and a debatable amounts of subspecies; they tend to hybridize readily) in the blueberry family! This genus of plants is a keystone species in Chaparral and mixed woodland biomes, most often found on nutrient poor soil with high sun exposure. Its berries support rodents, deer, foxes, coyotes, birds, and used to be the main food source of the now extinct California grizzly. Their flowers attract a variety of pollinators and you’ll often find them teeming with native bumblebees. Most Arctostaphylos species have flower structures that only release pollen when “buzzed” at the right frequency, releasing from a porous anther rather than having it exposed to the air. This is inter-kingdom mutualism at its finest! But I get ahead of myself.

I’d say the ingame Manzanita isn’t much to look at, but I get genuinely excited whenever I pass one I’d missed before while riding my horse around. This is a plant that grows near-exclusively in the California area, and seeing its characteristic red stems breathes so much vivacious locality into the Strawberry/Big Trees areas of the game. My best guess for identification would be Arctostaphylos viscida, which is one of the most common and widespread species in California. It seems to be a running theme, unfortunately, that these shrub models ingame sport very blurry vague details and hardly any genuine identifying characteristics aside from structure and general indicators. Its leaves look vaguely round? But nary a flower to be found. Its branching structure and red stem are dead-on for Arctostaphylos at least. Oh well. Still one of my favorite non-interactive plants to encounter ingame.

            My rating: 6/8

[rdr2plantblog]

Dudleya cymosa

"Canyon liveforever"

Here’s a plant I was surprised to see in game! It can be found on Arthur's bedside table in a little terrarium jar and nowhere else (that I know of) in game. Dudleya cymosa is a local native where I am, and Arthur actually references the fact that it’s a California endemic in conversation with Mary Beth over a game of dominoes.

The ingame rendering is gorgeous; its rosette of succulent leaves are curled slightly upward and pinkish, which its real life counterpart often does in more sun-soaked locations to retain moisture and protect itself from sun exposure. The Dudleya ingame is flowering, which happens around April-July depending on local microclimates. Given that rdr2 takes place from May to July, this is perfectly accurate! Its infloresence is a near-perfect recreation; two infloresences sprout from the sides of the rosette of leaves on a pinkish red stem bearing small cauline leaves of the same color. Its cup-shaped involucres are bright orange with yellow interiors, bearing five to six tightly fused petals which open into star shapes at the tips. Although the bracts of the game's plant don't cup the base of the petals as much as they do in real life, it's perfectly fine. In structure, coloration, and even as a characterization tool, this plant is an absolute knockout.

My rating: 8/8

[rdr2plantblog]

Queue has run its course! I've still got lots of plant posts in the works but I'm still doing the work of gathering screenshots and researching ✌️

In the meantime, feel free to ask about plant IDs or send asks! I love hearing feedback :p

[rdr2plantblog]

Aphanostephus skirrhobasis

“Arkansas Lazy Daisy”

This is another plant ID that I’m kinda just guessing at, so like. Holler if you’ve got a better one cause I don’t know SHIT about the Asteroideae subfamily.

The ingame plant I looked at was widespread through the Heartlands and Lemoyne, notably one of the meadow flowers growing on Kieran Duffy’s grave (rip).

It’s got a branching inflorescence with simple slightly elongated cauline leaves, with flower heads branching from interpetiolar nodes. The flowers are the daisy family’s characteristic composite flowerheads, with wide-ish ray florettes not bearing visible notches at the ends. Its basal leaves are absent ingame, which I’ll chalk up to being a render shortcut, but compared to its real-life counterpart, it’s not a huge deviation. The real Aphanostephus skirrhobasis doesn’t have a basal rosette so much as a basal clump of slightly bigger leaves, largely dependent on how arid its growing conditions are.

The only major deviation I can see between the two plants, which lends some dubiousness to my ID, is that the visible buds aren’t drooped downward (hence the “lazy daisy” common name). It’s also impossible to tell what the bract structure of this plant looks like (hence my slightly awkward screenshot angle, I was trying to see the damn bracts). Since bracts are a key diagnostic feature in most plants in the Asteraceae family, it’s really making my life difficult here.

            My rating: 7/8 for the dubious details.

[rdr2plantblog]

Hosta plantaginea ‘Sagae’

“‘Sagae’ Hosta”

There are so many introduced species in Saint Denis. I could probably spend a lifetime in this city and still find something new behind every alleyway. Well, this one you can find growing in parks around the city, as well as old lady’s gardens all over the real-life US of A. Hostas have been a horticultural attraction since their introduction from Asia in the mid to late 1800s, grown as much for their flowers as for their foliage. The game’s Hosta, in particular, seems to be a semi-modern cultivar known as ‘Sagae’, grown for its gold variegated leaves and showy white/lavender flowers (captured ingame quite beautifully).

Saint Denis being a large port city, it comes as no surprise to be seeing Hostas in gardens at this time in history. My screenshot isn’t very good but the developers really did an excellent job capturing the growth morphology of these plants, with their numerous petalled flowers blooming from an “inflated” bud, extending from cauline bracts. The verigation in coloring and the distinctly textured venation in the leaves are also really nice touches. I’ve never even grown these but I recognized them instantly.

            My rating: 8/8. Sorry I didn’t include the Sagae cultivar image to compare to. You’ll have to take my word that it’s a dead-on likeness.

[rdr2plantblog]

Muscari armeniacum

“Garden grape hyacinth”

I’m gonna be honest here. This ID is shaky.

When I was looking at the ingame model of this plant, I thought it was a smaller Lupinus polyphyllus, but upon closer inspection, it’s got long, bladelike leaves rather than Lupinus’ characteristic palmate leaflets. Bladelike leaves and tall purple aggregate infloresences? What could it be besides a possible Muscari armeniacum? I just don’t know. If anyone’s got a better suggestion, I’d love to hear it.

With that out of the way, if this plant really IS supposed to be Muscari armeniacum, it’s got… A few inaccuracies. Most obviously with the size of the inflorescence; in real life, these plants have a rather short flowering body, maxing out at about 7cm. This ingame flower model leaves no room for deciphering individual florets either; in real life, Muscari armeniacum has little bell-shaped involucres that nod downward and create such a charming little conflagration of bells. It’s just lovely. They go dormant from summer onwards, having photosynthesized in early spring when most other plants are just getting started; using this stored energy, they get a leg up and are among the first plants to pop out of the ground in spring to take advantage of unobstructed sunshine. You can probably find bulbs for these in your local garden center anywhere you are in the world.

As for this plant’s historical range, it’s native to much of Eurasia, and the earliest evidence of introduction by settlers in North America that I can find is early to mid 1800s. Is it possible that Arthur could’ve seen these in his travels? In the time of year the game’s set in, yes. Is it likely? Ehhh. I’ve made flimsier excuses in my plant analyses here before so let’s say yes.

            My rating: 2/8. What is going on here

[rdr2plantblog]

Salvia spathacea

“Hummingbird sage”

YEAH BABEY MY FAVORITE SALVIA! Salvia spathacea is a California endemic usually found around the coast and Sierra Nevada foothills in woodlands and open fields. Its leaves are lanceolate, usually growing from a basal rosette with a short petiole. They’re loved for their delightfully citrus smelling glands that cover the entire plant. The inflorescence is usually a tall singular stalk (sometimes branching from the base) with glabrous bracts arranged intermittently along the stem, from which pink flowers emerge and bloom sequentially from the bottom up, attractive to bees and especially hummingbirds.

In game, shortcuts were taken in rendering the characteristic clumped bracts, and the intermittent arrangement on the stem seems to have been compacted into one thick inflorescence. Even so, some care was taken to render the pink flowers and their protruding stamens and styles, so kudos there. The leaves were also inexplicably changed into a simple veined shape, with no evidence of the thick, hairy, and glabrous structure their real life counterparts have. Their in-game habitat also raises an eyebrow for me; you can find them all over the rdr2 map, where if they were going for something more realistic, I’d relegate them to only the tall trees/strawberry parts of West Elizabeth. I suppose the map needed a sage to be readily available to the player so they just chose this one to be widely distributed. Curse the intersection of video game functionality and real life logic. This is one of those plants in game that seems perfect at first glance but sort of falls apart when you look closer.

            My rating: 5/8

[redlugia]

I saw this in the native plant garden and was like surely this isnt rdr2 hummingbird sage? The sage that grows in forests all around lemoyne (Louisiana) which is the opposite of the drought prone ecosystem youd expect this sage to be in? But no thats it. Thank you rdr2 plant blog

[rdr2plantblog]

The very same! rdr2 really got the biome wrong didn't they XD

[rdr2plantblog]

Rhus typhina

“Staghorn sumac”

This is a plant I was only ever familiar with in “lemonade” form; it’s an east/northeast American native long harvested for all of its parts. Although the ingame Rhus typhina can be found scattered through much of the map, it’s most commonly found around Valentine and the Cumberland forest, where the soil conditions appear faithful to its real-life preference for drier areas, but its geographic location should be from Emerald Ranch eastward. That’s just a minor nitpick though.

 As for its morphology, the ingame plant is pretty accurate, if a little shrunken and simplified. Rhus typhina’s characteristic red velvety texture along its petioles and stems appears to be implied through a slight rust coloring. Its opposite pinnately compound leaves  are simple shaped just like its real-life counterpart, and its defining characteristic is its infruitesence, a spike shaped aggregate made up of multiple drupes. In their native range, these fruits ripen from late summer to autumn, and remain on the plant through winter. They’re very popular with birds (or so I’ve heard). The berries are used by humans in a sweet Sumac lemonade and Sumac tea, and its leaves and bark have a very high tannin content that makes them valuable as a natural dye/color fixer. Highly recommend Sumac lemonade :)

            My rating: 7/8

[rdr2plantblog]

Thymus serpyllum

“Creeping thyme”

Thymus serpyllum is a low growing woody shrub that you’ll be familiar with if you cook at all. It’s got simple leaves and is highly aromatic, giving a complex, almost peppery warm flavor to anything it’s cooked with. Some varieties also are grown for a lemon-like flavor profile. It’s another old world Mediterranean native, just as happy to grow in hot dry places as it is cold wet ones. Unlike its ingame counterpart though, Thymus serpyllum doesn’t grow much taller than ~6”. Otherwise, the game devs really got this one down to a T with its oval leaves, little Lamiaceae typical flowers, and creeping growth habit. Sources I found discussing Thymus serpyllum’s introduction to North America place it around the late 1700s, which tracks with its use in popular French cuisine. As such, its placement all over the map in rdr2 is relatively accurate, and Arthur could’ve easily been munching on some pork chops seasoned with creeping thyme at this time in history.

            My rating: 7/8

[rdr2plantblog]

Gaylussacia baccata

“Evergreen huckleberry”

This is a nitpick I’ve been talking about since 2020. WHY in the world is this plant named “Evergreen huckleberry” when that moniker is used in reference to Vaccinium ovatum? V. ovatum is a west coast Cascade mountains native and it’s nowhere near the lowland Mississippi delta biome that Lemoyne stands in for?? If the developers wanted to avoid confusion they should’ve just named it “Huckleberry”. Gaylussacia baccata is also clearly the plant they modeled the ingame one after, too, with its simple leaves, low-to-medium shrub habit, and berries growing off a short stem rather the nearly cauline berries of V. ovatum. Granted, they’re in the same family, but still. The “Evergreen” common name has sadly made the Red Dead Wiki misidentify another species.  I’ve attached two photos for double the evidence, lol.

Anyway, stupid common names aside: yeah this plant is pretty accurate. It can be found all over Lemoyne just like Gaylussacia baccata can be found all over the south, and its inclusion in the game is very welcome to make Lemoyne FEEL like the south. (oh how I wish they’d included Callicarpa americana!)

            My rating: 7/8 For the annoying common name mixup. This is why we use scientific names for plants

[rdr2plantblog]

Nerium oleander

“Oleander sage”

Nerium oleander is one of the most widespread naturalized plants in the modern world, with countless varieties and a family history so tangled it’s impossible to trace the true origin of the plant. If you live somewhere sunny, you know oleander. That being said, N. oleander’s introduction to the new world was actually somewhat recent; purportedly introduced first to Texas in the 1840s, but almost certainly thriving in other places in the new world before then. Finding it in the swamps of Lemoyne is hardly a surprise. Ingame, you can find it easily by its dark, leathery, lanceolate leaves and bright pink flowers. Bearing five petals and protruding anther filaments, its ingame rendering is as close to life as it’s possible to get; the only exception being the petals sometimes rendering with 4 instead of 5. Not sure if that’s a photo reference error or just the game rendering being slightly out of whack, but I’m not worried.

            My rating: 8/8

[rdr2plantblog]

Achillea millefolium

“Yarrow”

Achillea millefolium is a plant naturalized pretty much everywhere in the northern hemisphere, with specific subspecies and ecotypes in almost every biome you can think of. Given this, most native species of yarrow (ie, non-cultivated) are white. Why on earth are the game’s flowers red? Really. It’s a mystery that will haunt me to my grave. Besides that, this one’s another banger by the dev team! The plant looks stunning, with its umbels of densely clustered florets, its small cauline leaves, and large basal leaves bearing its namesake feathery, fernlike appearance. It’s also widely distributed ingame just like real life, and also harvestable for its health benefits. Yarrow irl has a wide variety of volatile oils, anti-inflammatory compounds, and natural acids good for digestion and infection. Its also been used historically to staunch bleeding.

            My rating: 7/8

[rdr2plantblog]

(tags via @redlugia)

You're absolutely right to be floored by these! Red is not a naturally occurring color in A. millefolium, it's actually a cultivar! The parent clone to the plant I used as an example is called 'Paprika' and these are sold in garden centers, plant nurseries, and wherever else you can find something labelled "easy to care for/pollinator friendly". Absolutely no shade to this being sold so widely, but it being a cultivar, its entire population (i.e. every 'Paprika' yarrow you see) is a genetic clone and this comes with the obvious downsides of it being vulnerable to blight and population-wide diseases due to lack of genetic diversity. My inner ecologist screams a little every time these are sold to uninformed enthusiasts.

A few other red cultivars can be found listed on wikipedia and various plant breeder's websites. I think the reason they went with the red cultivar rather than its natural white sibling was, A) ease of visual distinction with the other Achillea plant ingame, and B) easier to spot ingame as you're flying by on your horse. It could also be a secret third thing, which is some developer or another saw the red cultivar regularly and assumed it was naturally occurring in wild populations.

[rdr2plantblog]

Crocus vernus

“Violet snowdrop”

I’m not really sure why this plant ingame is called Violet Snowdrop? Maybe that’s an older common name no longer in use? The “Snowdrop” moniker is usually used in reference to the Galanthus genus, and I couldn’t find ant text relating it to Crocus. Either way, this is one of my favorite plants in the game to pick. Crocus vernus is a popular garden plant whose native range is around the Mediterranean basin. Its introduction to the new world is estimated to be around the 1850s, so it’s not entirely impossible for Arthur to have encountered this plant. Its ingame locations are near settlements, so it’s possible that feral populations are descended from defunct gardens. Morphologically, the game’s plant is pretty decent. Small, purple, cup-shaped inflorescences, stamens arranged compactly along the pistil, branched style, narrow blade-like leaves sprouting from an underground corm. My only gripe with the rendering is that there’s no variation in throat color or venation in the petals, which honestly look a little like tulips for their lack of detail. The growth habit is also a little taller than it would be in real life. Despite its flaws, I really enjoy this plant.

            My rating: 5/8

[rdr2plantblog]

Achillea millefolium

“Yarrow”

Achillea millefolium is a plant naturalized pretty much everywhere in the northern hemisphere, with specific subspecies and ecotypes in almost every biome you can think of. Given this, most native species of yarrow (ie, non-cultivated) are white. Why on earth are the game’s flowers red? Really. It’s a mystery that will haunt me to my grave. Besides that, this one’s another banger by the dev team! The plant looks stunning, with its umbels of densely clustered florets, its small cauline leaves, and large basal leaves bearing its namesake feathery, fernlike appearance. It’s also widely distributed ingame just like real life, and also harvestable for its health benefits. Yarrow irl has a wide variety of volatile oils, anti-inflammatory compounds, and natural acids good for digestion and infection. Its also been used historically to staunch bleeding.

            My rating: 7/8