Phytanthrope

A version of the phytanthrope community symbol.

A plantkin pride flag designed by Tumblr user 8stripe on February 1, 2020.

Phytanthrope (colloquially known as plantkin) is a term which refers to someone who identifies as a plant in a human body on an integral and personal level.

Phytanthropes may use the alchemy symbol Erde for Earth to represent themselves, often colored green or with a seedling sprouting from the center-most horizontal line.

Community

History & etymology

Phytanthrope is a combination of the Greek terms phyton, meaning "plant," and anthrope, meaning "human" or "man." It was created using such in order to parallel the word therianthrope. It was first used on a Werelist thread on Februrary 10, 2013 by Earth Listener of House of Chimeras, and is attributed to Darahagh of their system.

Previous terminology that has since fallen out of use to refer to plant-identifying individuals includes wereplant, coined on AHWw in 1995, greenkin, coined in 2004, and woodkin, coined on the now-purged Woodkin LiveJournal in 2006. Plantkin, a portmanteau of “plant” and “otherkin," is often used as a synonym to phytanthrope. Plantkin seems to have been coined in 2004, on the Plant / Green 'Kin LiveJournal.

Reaction

Some phytanthropes report experiencing dismissal or aggression due to their identity from other alterhumans. Sometimes this is due to differing personal beliefs around the sentience of plants. In a small survey held on Tumblr for phytanthropes, participants were asked how they felt about themselves in relation to the otherkin community as a whole: 42% wished for most positive attention from the community, while 42% had no strong feelings either way. Despite disbelief from some, phytanthropes have been reported to exist in alterhuman community spaces since at least 1995.