Here’s what we know about golden flowers, Asriel, and Flowey from Undertale based on direct evidence from the games text and graphics.
Basically from the information given to us from the tapes and neutral ending, the first human, Chara, had tested some buttercup flowers in the butterscotch pie and ended up making Asgore ill, then Chara knew it was poisonous so they ate the buttercups as part of their plan, They were committing suicide so their soul could fuse with Asriels body to grow strong enough to pass the barrier and attack mankind. Chara asked to see the flowers of their village. Golden flowers, because they knew none of them grew in the underground. Chara knew it would give Asriel an excuse to take Chara’s dead body to the surface to the flowers in the human village, grieving, Toriel and Asgore let him go out there, a choice that haunted Toriel and made her obsessed with safety and not letting any children leave. In reality, Chara had already convinced Asriel to do this as part of a plan to kill more humans and bring back their souls to break the barrier, Chara manipulated and abused Asriel to make him stop doubting the plan and to obey. We know all this from the genocide route and true lab tapes.
We learn from the lab entries that the golden flowers had seeds that stick to you, and we also learn that a golden flower sprouted in the Kings garden when the queen left. We learn from the sink and from the sprite work that the boss monsters, which Asriel is one of, have thick fur.
When Asriel placed the body of the first human down on the flower patch in the village, he got a seed from the gold flowers stuck to him. He returns home with the humans body after being beaten, and he dies, turning to dust in the Kings garden, which would drop the seed. As we learn from the library the monsters believe spreading a dead monsters dust imbues whatever object it’s spread on with the monsters essence when their soul is destroyed. This is how the first golden flower got there in the garden, and how it gained Asriel’s essence and personality. We learn in the lab entries that Alphys injected determination into that very first Asriel-imbued flower that grew in the garden. The flower comes to life in the garden and thus Flowey is “born” and escapes.
Those golden flowers that spread everywhere are all from the seeds from that first flower that sprouted from the seed, the flower that became Flowey. Because only one flower sprouted, all the seeds from it are genetically the same, self pollinated.
Now this is the bit about Flowey that is based off what we know, but is slightly more speculation. We know Flowey has control over vines that cover the ground and grow quickly. He depressed the button for the puzzle in snowdin with his vines. He pops up everywhere and follows the player, emerging from the ground and then going back in. He uses vines to block off the exit in the true pacifist ending and to attack as Omega Flowy in that ending.
He is never shown as having legs, he never moves other than popping out of the ground at different locations, and he has vines everywhere, and at one point it is said that he “ran away”.
This is the speculation part, what if Flowey is all the flowers in the game, just spreading vines and roots under the ground everywhere,allowing him to appear and watch and listen from anywhere in the game. Every golden flower you see growing in the game, Is part of Flowey, but he can only emerge as that one original flower with the determination and essence in it, which is why when you kill that flower, his vessel is gone and the flower network goes back to just being normal.
Given what we know about Flowey and the Golden flowers, we know that it’s a plant that forms vast expanding root networks in a variety of places, with large yellow flowers with 5 large petals, although Flowey has 6 for some reason. We know the seeds stick to fur, and that it has vine like parts. No known plant has all of these characteristics, but the plant that matches the description the most would be Chrysogonum virginianum, also known as the creeping green-and-gold. Golden Flowers would be easy to spread with the sticky seeds and the large groups of golden flowers that cover the ground in thick vine mats to prevent any other plant competition from growing near it. Toriel even brings some of these seeds and plants them at Chara’s grave when she brings their body from the New Home to the Ruins for a proper burial. It’s these flowers that break your fall at the start of the game. Flowey is still using a colony of flowers, a single organism spread throughout the land, as a vessel. He may be a determination and monster essence warped flower, but he is still a flower. A flower than grew fertilized by his own dust, that spread and connected via vines, stolons, and roots throughout the Underground with no native predators and no plants evolved to compete with. A flower that had its seeds planted at the grave and fertilized by the body of his best friend and adopted sibling. A flower that grew and spread to the point it was able to soften Frisk’s fall so they were not injured.
*edited from my first post on this blog
