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"A grizzled coterie of gardeners care for this unusual orchard. The plants that grow here are Heart-Catchers, whose fruit looks - and speaks - like human heads."[1]
St. John's Lily
Heart-Takers, also known as Heart-Catchers, are intelligent plants that grow fruit resembling human heads. The heads on each plant appear to have independent minds, which talk amongst themselves like a community.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
St John's Lily[]
"'Well, you didn't hear this from me, but you're not the only one in London with a St John's lily,' she says. 'They've been growing in cellars and parlours since the Fall. And you know how competitive gardeners are.'"[2]
A Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist
The St John's Lily is a rather singular and aggressive Heart-Taker that gains nutrients from various thing ranging from wine and small animals to sorrow-spiders and vicars[3][4]. Its mature fruit specifically resembles the Head of St John the Baptist.[5] These so-called Counterfeit Heads are used in Knife-and-Candle as a protection charm of sorts.[6]
Horticulturally inclined Londoners - members of neo-botanical society, so they say - grow their St John's Lilies to participate in the the Tournament of Lilies, where they compete in various contests of beauty, cunning, and ferocity.[2]
Heart-Catcher Gardens[]
"A series of finely-manicured indigo lawns cover this corner of Pan. Peculiar plants grow in the beds: tangled as rose-bushes, and budding with fruit. The fruit is lumpen: perfectly formed facial features are growing on it. This one has a frantic, staring eye. This one is growing an ear. This one keens pitiably through tiny, trembling lips."[7]
There is a garden of mature Heart-Catchers near Pan. Unlike the plants in the Neath, these do not all bear fruits resembling the head of John the Baptist; some can even look like... one's aunt?[8]
Heart-Catchers can become fatally ill in old age. One possible cure is temporarily grafting a healthy visitor's head onto the ailing plant, to revive the other heads.[9]
Historical and Cultural Inspirations[]
The Biblical Saint John the Baptist was martyred via beheading, hence the inspiration for the plant and its name.