Botanica (BM)

Botanica is a Maximal from the Beast Machines portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

The fandom somehow failed to clamor for this one.

The Transformers have taken on myriad alternate modes over the years, but Botanica remains unique: she transforms into an ambulatory plant. She is competent and powerful, as well as a bit mystical, and has a strong connection to the planet and an affinity for growing things. A scientist first and foremost, she can be fastidious and fussy in her dedication to her work—sometimes to the point of overlooking the things that matter most.

Fiction

Beast Wars cartoon continuity

Beast Machines cartoon

Voice actor: Kathleen Barr (English), Atsuko Tanaka (Japanese), Liu Haixia (Chinese), Vera Miranda (Brazilian Portuguese), Arianne Borbach (German), Ruth Toscano (Latin-American Spanish), Catherina Martínez (Castilian Spanish), Laurence César (French)

Obvious Plant.

Botanica captained the same type of exploration mission that the Axalon originally undertook. After landing on a planet dominated by mobile plants, her crew adopted new alternate modes to study this alien ecosystem.

The key to looking like a plant monster is to turn your head around so they can't see you have a face.

When they received Megatron's fake distress signal, Botanica left the planet and returned to Cybertron, whereupon Megatron's automated defense system shot down her ship. The attack and subsequent crash damaged her higher reasoning circuits, leaving her operating on basic survival instincts. When Optimus Primal and his Maximals investigated her ship, they found her in a feral state. In her plant mode, she attacked them and then fled underground, spreading seeds as she went. The seeds immediately sprouted into various plants, the most insidious being rapidly-growing vines. Primal worried that, left unchecked, the plants she was producing would destroy the technorganic balance he sought to create. She was somehow drawn to the technorganic orchard (and, Cheetor noted, its pipeline to the planet's organic core). Catching up with her there, Primal noticed that she was sparking the way the Maximals had when they were infected with Megatron's virus. This gave him the idea to reformat her into a technorganic body, which restored her sanity. After explaining the story behind her unusual beast mode and the circumstances of her arrival, she pledged to help Optimus's group. This was lucky for the Maximals, who were immediately set upon by Vehicons. Botanica converted to robot mode and unleashed a chain-lightning attack that reduced a phalanx of Tank Drones to dust. With the threat over, Botanica turned her attention to the ailing orchard, altering the overhead lighting and allowing the plants to flourish once more. Home Soil

See, way friendlier!

While the other Maximals continued the fight against the Vehicons, Botanica took up residence in the orchard, tending to the plants. She chose not to fight, arguing that the more the Maximals fought Megatron, the more they became like him. Although Cheetor and Blackarachnia resented this, Primal accepted her reasons, and also reminded his team that they were more than enough to fight Megatron and Thrust. However, Botanica soon received a vision from the Matrix, which showed her how much pain Cybertron was in. Botanica abandoned her pacifism and joined in the fight, saving the Maximals from a trap Obsidian and Strika had sprung. The Strike

Botanica later accompanied the Maximals to the surface, where they watched Megatron reinforce his position in anticipation for his next move. She was then tasked with accompanying Rattrap to the Citadel as the Maximals searched for the captured Sparks, or any clues to their current whereabouts. She wasn't too happy with her assigned partner. Botanica and Rattrap only managed to find the empty canisters that once held the captured Sparks in Megatron's old haunt, and moved on. As the pair walked away, they were attacked by Strika and her drones, and quickly forced to run away at full speed. They wound up in a holographic pleasure booth. Rattrap was ecstatic about what they had stumbled upon, while Botanica insisted they stay focused on the situation at hand. While Rattrap was distracted by a virtual vacation, Strika caught up to them and resumed her assault against the Maximals. But as Strika advanced towards Botanica, the Vehicon inadvertedly stepped into one of the holographic booths, and Rattrap took advantage of the situation to entrap her in the holographic vacation Botanica had just then pulled him out of. Rattrap began fishing for compliments from Botanica for his quick thinking, but Botanica simply stated that the chip wouldn't last forever, and dragged Rattrap away from the building. The both of them later reconvened with the other Maximals to learn that Megatron was keeping the captured sparks within the Grand Mal. The Search

On her subsequent mission, Botanica was teamed up with Rattrap, Blackarachnia and Optimus, and tasked with infiltrating the Grand Mal. Within the floating fortress, they encountered Thrust and his drones but nonetheless managed to make it all the way to Megatron's inner chamber. There, they were pinned down by the Vehicon leader's defenses. Megatron attempted to remove Botanica's spark, along with every other Maximals’, in order to fuse them to his already ascending essence. Thankfully, Nightscream blasted Megatron's spark with a sonic blast, freeing his comrades. The Maximals then took control of the Grand Mal.The Siege

With Megatron presumed dead, Botanica returned her focus to the orchard, with the help of a reluctant Rattrap. They began arguing over the other's respective priorities, but eventually kissed. Despite pledging to delete it from memory, they showed obvious concern for each other. Spark of Darkness When the still alive Megatron launched an attack on the Maximal-held Grand Mal, they were forced to raise the shields, which cut Botanica off from the organic core. Rattrap jettisoned her into an escape pod with a field projecting the same harmonics as the Grand Mal's shields, saving Botanica's life but also allowing Megatron to fire through the shields. Botanica met up with Silverbolt, Blackarachnia and Nightscream on the outside. The Downward Spiral They then doubled back towards the Grand Mal, which had been brought down in their absence. En route, Botanica had located a power conduit, and helped Rattrap connect it to the fortress for one final stand against the Vehicons. As the pair were repairing the Grand Mal's systems, they danced around the subject of one another's feelings awkwardly. As the confrontation against Megatron's troops began, Botanica sensed that the technorganic orchard was under attack. She headed underground with Nightscream and Rattrap to defend it against the Vehicon Moles obliterating the trees. Though the trio held their ground for a time, they eventually fell in battle, and their sparks were extracted by Vehicons. When Legends Fall

If you like to talk to tomatoes, if a squash can make you smile...

When Megatron was finally destroyed and Cybertron reformatted, Botanica awakened, Spark restored to her body. As she returned to the surface, she finally admitted her romantic relationship with Rattrap. So she likes small rodents. Deal with it. Seeds of the Future

Transformers Legends anthology

While Botanica and Rattrap were bickering in the technorganic orchard, Megatron's spark animated a Cycle drone and attacked them. After a brief scuffle, the thing exploded, sending the pair diving for cover. Singularity Ablyss

3H comics

A week after the conclusion of the Spark War, Botanica was present on Cybertron for the latest Quintesson invasion. The planet spoke to her during the conflict, informing her of a greater threat coming from below. She took Rattrap and Nightscream with her to explore the planet's depths, where they ran across the Wreckers' Quintesson ally, Al-badur. Initially suspicious, the Maximals reluctantly accepted Al-badur at his word after he used some old Quint codes to deactivate a third of the Sharkticon forces on the surface.

They made contact with what remained of the Wreckers, and Al-badur brought them to a Quintesson banishing chamber, which could hopefully be used against their foe Cryotek, who had mainlined some of Primus's own power through the Divine Light. Naturally, Al-badur tried to betray them, opening the banishment portal in the hopes of sending both Cryotek AND the assembled heroes to some distant void. Arcee warned the others in time so that only Sentinel Maximus was caught with Cryotek in the force field surrounding the portal. Botanica was also suffering her own problems the unique nature of the Quintesson chamber was cutting her off from her symbiotic connection to Cybertron's organic side. Using her electro-blasters against Cryotek had only further depleted her reserves, and she was forced to flee the chamber. She still managed to help from a distance, however, using her techno-organic vines to carry the injured Rodimus back into the fray, where he could do the most good. Wreckers: Finale Part II

Wings Universe

Following the Great Transformation of Cybertron, Botanica and her friends stood guard over Cheetor as their leader attempted to commune with the Oracle. Alpha Trizer's profile

Legends comic

Following the Great Transformation, Botanica and the other surviving Maximals listened to Cheetor explain that Rhinox's spark was not gone for good, but lost in another universe. Bonus Edition Vol. EX

Waspscream continuity

In Primax 208.06 Zeta, Botanica instead joined up with Waspscream's Predacons in the Spark War against Megatron's Vehicons. The Predacons eventually emerged victorious. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/16

Beast Wars: Uprising

We were hoping for a toy of this, but it was all a wash.

Botanica was part of a Maximal Resistance cell who rebelled against the status quo imposed by their Autobot masters. Rattrap equipped her with a drone that she wore on her chest. Prologue She met and recruited Jawbreaker to her cause after finding him wandering the streets. Jawbreaker's profile in Club magazine #57 After Trans-Mutate was betrayed by Cryotek, Botanica rescued her from the authorities. Perception Botanica was part of a small team that infiltrated the Ferromax Detention Center with the intent of rescuing Dynobot. Once they rendezvoused with Rattrap inside, Botanica unleashed her drone to take care of the cameras on the maximum security level. Though initially reluctant, she let Rattrap take command of the mission, and they succeeded in freeing Dynobot. Prologue

As one of the earliest resistors, Botanica was made a Resistance delegate to the post-war Cybertronian Parliament. Derailment

Regeneration One

Just a mean green mother from outer space!

After being attacked by Jhiaxus's Primum Fugae and perhaps sensing the imminent rise of the Dark Matrix creature's shadow-leeches, the Demons from the depths of Cybertron began to form protective coccoons around themselves, which the Dinobots found creepy. The War to End All Wars, Part 4 Much, much later, when the last of the Transformers returned to Cybertron to die, a strange blue energy spread from his body to the coccoons, one of which then opened to reveal Botanica—the first of a new generation. The War to End All Wars, Part 5

Legends World

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2021 Beast Wars comic

Botanica was part of a team responsible for analyzing the Golden Disk. Maximals Strike Back, Part 1

Games

Transformers Roleplaying Game

Botanica was a peaceful scientist with a plant-based alternate mode who joined the Maximals after a false distress call from Megatron lured her back to Cybertron. Although generally reserved, she was a close companion of Rattrap's. Technorganic Secrets

Notes

• Botanica's pre-production name was "Binary". In 2015, this name was utilized for a similar but separate character in Beast Wars: Uprising. An early draft of potential season 2 episodes uses the names "Arborita" and "Flora" and explicitly describes her alternate mode as an alien tree. ^[1]
• Despite not being meant for a toy, it was Hasbro that suggested a robot-to-plant Transformer, out of a drive to do different things with the franchise.^[2]

They laughed at the idea of a "ship's gardener". Oh, how they laughed.

• Assuming the Transformer seen in silhouette at right is Botanica, she was, for fifteen years, the only plant-based Transformer ever seen in the canon. She states the other members of her crew also took plant modes, so she's not unique within the fictional universe. However, judging by the reactions of Optimus Primal and the other Maximals, they had either never heard of "Plantformers" before, or they are extremely rare. Ask Vector Prime would eventually provide examples of other plant-based Transformers out there in the multiverse.
• Botanica's technorganic transformation is different from all the others; instead of being surrounded by colored lights, a ring of technorganic plants spring up, and shrink down, revealing her robot mode.
• When in plant mode (which is most of the time), Botanica is the only Transformer with an alternate mode that exhibits heterochromia. While she has two yellow eyes in bot mode, her plant mode's left eye is green. The only other Transformer to feature this characteristic is one interpretation of Panther.
• Botanica's technorganic robot mode bears a striking resemblance to popular depictions of a cryptid known as the Flatwoods monster, down to her unusual collar and ability to hover.
• Despite her pacifist ways, Botanica is well-armed, with several weapons at her disposal, including energy projectiles, electrical fields, and a "chain-lightning" attack that leaps from one enemy to another. Huh. Surprisingly well-armed for someone who doesn't like to fight.
• Botanica's appearance in Alone Together is based on Beast Hunters Soundwave. Not only that, the drone that she possesses is based on Prime Laserbeak. Her coloration is based on her alternate mode in Beast Machines, presumably because it is more recognizable than her seldom-seen robot mode.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Botanica (ボタニカ Botanika)
• Mandarin: Botanica (Taiwan, 波坦妮卡 Bōtǎnnīkǎ), Shùshén (China, 树神, "Tree God")

References