Botanica


 * Botanica is a Maximal from the Beast Machines portion of the Beast Era.



The Transformers have taken on myriad alternate forms over the years, but Botanica remains unique: she transforms into a mobile alien plant creature. 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 &mdash; sometimes to the point of overlooking the things that matter most.

"Looks like it's time to take out the deadwood!"

- Botanica

Pre-production name: Binary

Beast Machines

 * Voice actor: Kathleen Barr (US), Atsuko Tanaka (Japan)



Botanica captained the same sort of exploration mission that the Axalon originally undertook. Landing on a planet dominated by plant life, including the mobile carnivorous variety, her crew adopted forms based upon them to blend in (presumably to avoid predation) and study them.

When they received Megatron's fake distress signal, Botanica left the world and her crew behind and returned to Cybertron, and was shot down. She was apparently driven temporarily mad (and trapped in plant-creature mode) by Megatron's virus and did not regain her sanity until Optimus Primal reformatted her to be technorganic. She then joined with Primal's team to help save Cybertron, with a particular focus on their technorganic orchard.

However, her focus on the orchard was initially all she did. Botanica didn't help the Maximals in fighting the Vehicons, arguing that the more they fought Megatron, the more they became like Megatron. 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 formed.

Despite initial dislike, Botanica eventually formed a romantic relationship with Rattrap. So she likes small rodents. Deal with it.

Universe: Featuring the Wreckers
fanclub

Trivia

 * Botanica is a rarity, in that she was a major recurring heroic character in a Transformers television show, but was apparently never intended to have a toy.
 * Assuming the Transformer seen in silhouette at right is Botanica, she remains 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.
 * Yet another point of rarity: In both plant and robot mode, she has four hands (her arms divide at the elbow), and no true legs (she has roots in plant mode, and a sort of "hoverskirt" in robot mode).
 * Another oddity: Botanica's technorganic transformation is different from all the others- Instead of being surrounded by coloured lights, a ring of technorganic plants spring up, and shrink down, revealing her robot mode.
 * Depite 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.