Plants

Plants are the primary focus of Plant Tycoon. They are grown from seeds in the game's main screen, the greenhouse. Plants have two separate characteristics which determine their species: foliage and flowers. There are 23 different kinds of foliage and 23 different flowers. Every combination of foliage and flowers is possible, resulting in a total of 529 plant species. Plants with different foliage or flowers can be bred in order to produce new species.

Foliage
Each of the 23 different kinds of foliage has a corresponding family of seeds. The foliage that will grow from a seed can be readily determined from the seed's appearance. Some families grow more easily, whereas others are very hard to grow. The families fall into four tiers based upon their level of difficulty.

The higher its tier, the more valuable a mature plant will be. Tier 1 and 2 plants can grow with basic soil and water, although the latter will require more attention to survive. Tier 3 plants need Bio-organic Soil and Filtered Water to have much of a chance at life. Tier 4 plants really need Soil from Isola and Water from Isola in order to survive.

With poor quality soil and water, more demanding plants will quickly become unhealthy. They can still be grown to maturity using chemicals like Vitamins to keep them healthy or Insta-Grow to accelerate growth, but this can be expensive.

Seeds for tier 1 through 3 families can be discovered through crossbreeding. However, tier 4 families can only be crossbred from other tier 4 plants. Their seeds can however be purchased as Extinct Seeds in the supply shop or grown plants can be produced by using Mutation Liquid.

Flowers
There are also 23 kinds of flowers. The exact flower a seed will produce isn't immediately obvious from looking at the seed, however there are ways to help narrow down the possibilities. Seeds in each family come in four tiers. As with foliage, higher tier flowers will require more care than lower tiers. Each tier can produce only certain kinds of flowers.

Additionally, when viewing a seed in the seed box, its parent plants are displayed. Each combination of parent flowers will consistently produce a specific result. As a basic example, if both parents have the same flower, the seed will produce that flower as well.