c. 4.5 billion to 550 million years B.C.

Earth Thing (champion of the Parliament of Stones)

NOTES:

• Matango is named for a Japanese film called Matango (English titles: Attack of the Mushroom People and Fungus of Terror).



• The Gardener is the link between Mankind and the Animal Kingdom. Her function is to protect the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.



• Aaron Hayley's brief reign falls within that of Albert Höllerer. Why the Green would comission two Champions at once is unclear, especially since they later balked at the idea of Alec and the Sprout co-existing. Höllerer is based on a non-DC comic title called The Heap.



• Had the fourth Swamp Thing series not been canceled as of issue #29, writer Josh Dysart had planned to introduce a heretofore unknown earth elemental in the year 1900, also known as Swamp Thing. This places the end of Lady Jane's reign as elemental before 1900, and takes place before Alex Olsen assumes the role in 1905.



• Jason Woodrue is not truly an elemental, but the Parliament of Trees themselves have recognized him as "one of their kind."



• Poison Ivy, formerly Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley, is a leading botany expert who possesses a number of plant-like powers. Her body chemistry creates touch-activated potions, including truth serums, love potions, and so forth, which she usually delivers with a kiss. A masterful manipulator, she is especially adept at coercing men to serve her. Her experiments have led to the creation of numerous mutated and deadly plants, all under her total control. She is a regular foe of the Batman.



• Although Man-Thing exists in the Marvel universe, his form is among those in the Parliament of Trees. Whether this former elemental is truly Man-Thing or just similar in appearance is unclear.



• Jack-in-the-Green is a traditional character from English May Day celebrations, usually represented as a figure decorated with holly and ivy leaves due to his origins in European tree worship.



• The Moss Beings, the Swampster, The Monster, the Swamp-God and El Monstro are not said to be actual plant elementals but are included here since they greatly resemble such, and since several of them were created by Swamp Thing alumni Berni Wrightson, Len Wein and Alfredo Alcala.



• Alec Holland has travelled far forward and backward through time, from the dawn of time to twelve million years in the future. Though transformed into Swamp Thing in 1973, he is actually the template for all future Swamp Things, thanks to one trip back to Eden. Alec has gone by many other names throughout history, including the Bog God, Monster of the Fens and the Visitor.



• Like Alex Olsen before him, Alec Holland is known to the Cajuns as "the Good Gumbo Man" because his influence on the local fauna produces amazingly lush vegetables, improving the quality of their gumbo.



• Anton Arcane traded bodies with Alec Holland for a brief period, hoping to rule the world with his powers.



• A second, unintelligent Swamp Thing grew from one of Alec's severed arms. It wandered for two years before battling the real Alec Holland.



• The Sprout, an infant elemental spirit, was conceived by Alec and Abby Holland with the physical assistance of John Constantine. After seven failed attempts in other hosts (Solomon Grundy, Alan Bolland, Gary Holland, Alden Hollandaise, Chester Williams, Alan Helstrom and even Abby herself), it took hold in the body of Tefé Holland, the first human-plant hybrid elemental. Tefé was later submerged in the body of Mary Conway for three years, unaware of her real identity until her true self re-emerged.



• The above was Grundy's second failed transformation, the first occurring in 1944 when a lack of fire turned him into a brain-damaged undead killer instead of a plant elemental.



• Norfulthing was a terror elemental summoned by the mind of young Astra Logue to deal with the frequent sexual abuse she endured at the hands of her club-owner father and his drugged-up friends.



• Wild Thing was created when Alan Boland's psychotic personality was combined with those from the elementals known as Bog Venus, Saint Columba, Ghost-Hiding in the Rushes and the Kettle Hole Devil, resulting in a schizoid mind.



• The states containing Gotham and Metropolis remain a subject of debate, but many fans place Gotham in New Jersey and Metropolis in Deleware. Others believe the cities to be New York's sixth and seventh boroughs. I have chosen to go with the first suggestion.



• Lady Jane is based on the legend of Jenny Greenteeth, a green hag of English folklore who traditionally haunts Yorkshire bogs.



• Knoll, a member of the Green, represnts the North Amreican Chapter of the Grass. This being was actually a creation of Tefé's when her human mind altered the Green to fit her own frame of reference. Upon discovering that this happened, Alec restored the Green to its natural state, eliminating Knoll and all other vestiges of Tefé's creation.



• Kudzu is a Samurai protector of the Green.



• Sitka and Hemlock are tree spirits in an Alaskan village of the Green known as the Old Country. When Alec wiped the Green clean of Tefé's influence, Sitka was presumably destroyed. (Hemlock had already been destroyed by Tefé herself.



• Thunder Petal is the result of huge amounts of elemental energy being released by the creation of a doppelganger of Alec Holland, which mutated a daisy creature created by Tefé Holland into a mountainous creature of irrational rage.



• Spore, a fungus-based elemental from the Grey and possible follower of Matango, was introduced in the pages of Green Lantern.



• Jack Green, introduced in issue #93 of Hellblazer, is a denizen of the legendary town of Abaton, and more than resembles Jack-in-the-Green. Whether or not these are intended to be the same being is unclear, but given their vastly different characterizationa and motivations (not to mention that Jack-in-the-Green resides in the Parliament of Trees, not Abaton), it seems rather doubtful.