History Main / FertileFeet

* ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'': Another evil example. [[spoiler:Viktoria]] leaves moss at her touch until she shows her true form as [[spoyler:a dryad, at which point creeping vines sprout from around her feet and grow in her wake]].

** Lúthien Tinúviel does this. [[{{Troperiffic}} And how]].

** In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' King Théoden's ''horse'' does this to its grave. The horse was buried where he was killed, and grass grew lushly over the grave. (In contrast to the Nazgûl GiantFlyer's death-spot, which [[WalkingWasteland remained forever barren]].) Also happens with other burial sites, with those of evil beings staying barren.

** Common attribute of Demeter/Ceres, the Grain Mother, and to her daughter, Persephone, bringer of springtime (when Persephone goes into the Underworld, it's another story...).
** Also by Medusa and Cerberus, neither of whom were noted for their kindness. When Perseus was bringing Medusa's head back to Greece, her blood continually soaked through the bag he was carrying it in and caused oases to form wherever they landed. And when Heracles brought Cerberus out of Tartarus as part of his last Labor, Cerberus began howling in rage and his drool caused the plant commonly known as Wolfsbane to blossom wherever it hit the soil.

** While no unit in the sequel gain directly the ability, the druids can have it with a gold medal, and it's still available as an item property. Wizards with at least one Light Sphere can have a similar magic effect active in their domain that slowly restores terrain.

* In VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies there is a code that makes daisies appear when a zombie dies.

* ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'': [[http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-07-31 Courtesy of Luna during the rebirth of Maltak.]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Battlepug}}'': The governor's daughter has the power to make plants (flowers or plant tentacles) grow in her vicinity. And one @#$%load of a vocabulary. Really, if she [[ClusterFBomb chain-swears]], expect a large number of hostile plants.

* In Zilpha Keatley Snyder's novel ''The Changeling'', Martha and Ivy invent a fantasy kingdom of Tree People with [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation pale green skin]] and [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair dark green hair]] in which [[FlowerInHerHair flowers grow naturally]]. (The Tree People later developed into Snyder's ''Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy'' and, eventually, the ''Below the Root'' video game.)

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal, Apricity Brabble is a young Lancre witch who is more at home with the long slow cycles of green growing things than she is with people. She gives creative thought to the interplay between the anthropomorphic personaltiies of the Wintersmith and the Summer Lady, and wonders where the two intermediate seasons of Spring, when you plant seeds, and Autumn, when you harvest the crop, fit into the scheme of things. A Witch, in tune with the cycles of life and of plant growth, finds this thought can turn her into an avatar of both. She discovers [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12650047/51/Strandpiel she can do the fertile feet thing]] - but only with things like oats, barley, wheat and spelt.

* Creator/HenrikWergeland due to MemeticMutation. In 1937, Norwegian painter Reidar Aulie painted him on his horse in par With this trope, where he is seen dropping seeds of flowers behind him for children to pick it up. At the sane time, poet Ingeborg Refling Hagen wrote a poem, stating that "when seeds sprouts in our footsteps, it is the growth of Wergeland´s thoughts" (in other words - each and every one can fill the trope when we follow his example).

** The Flowering kith of Fairest cause flowers to spring wherever they step... though it takes months for them to do so in the real world, while in Arcadia and The Hedge it's instantaneous.

** In Return of the Scarlet Empress, Gaia's return to Creation includes this trope.
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': In the TabletopGame/{{Planescape}} setting, the T'uen-Rin is a unicorn-like planar being with powerful spellcasting abilities. Flowers quickly grow wherever their hooves touch the earth.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'', from the [[Creator/PlatinumGames same development studio]], has Bayonetta leaving behind a small trail of black plants whenever she is running in panther form.

** And the red dragons, who are guardians of the Aspect of Life, have fertile ''breath'' -- flowers spring up from where they breathe flame, most notably and poignantly at Angrathar. Some seem to have this trope exactly, such as Surristrasz and his drakes at Amber Ledge, who are surrounded by a patch of grass and flowers upon otherwise barren rock.

* Using a Grass Assist in ''VideoGame/PokemonRanger'' causes grass and flowers to sprout from your Capture Line.

*** As of Black 2 and White 2, his new form has feet.

* In a sense, Elizabeth Greene of ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' is this way - she even has the added bonus of being a beautiful young woman with unearthly powers and bare feet, nicknamed MOTHER. It just happens that she doesn't spread nice benevolent things like flowers or plants. Instead, wherever ''she'' goes, [[TheVirus the infection]] follows her in a trail of mutagenic, fleshy, diseased tendrils and pustules - even on steel, concrete or glass.

* Another evil example in ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}''. [[spoiler: Viktoria leaves mosses at her touch until she shows her true form as a dryad, when creeping vines sprout from around her feet and grow in her wake.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Gaia in ''WesternAnimation/{{Captain Planet|and the Planeteers}}'' left trails of flowers in her footsteps whenever she appeared in the human world.
* Aphrodite from the cartoon series of ''WesternAnimation/HerculesTheAnimatedSeries'' leaves small flowers wherever she walks. Mind you, they quickly disappear again.
* Van Kleiss in ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'' can do this, and he's the ''BigBad''! However, it only works in the area around his castle, which is infused with nanites that he controls. He may arguably have been invoking the trope at the time to get Rex to let his guard down.
* The second season opening of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' depicts Jimmy as being able to turn anything he touches into a happy, beautiful thing. He never has this power in the show, though.
* This happens every Friday the 13th for Misery in ''WesternAnimation/RubyGloom''.
* Apolline's puppies in the short ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1nwhp9HJls Premier Automne]]'' when grouped together, and Apolline herself by the end.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E16CampfireTales Campfire Tales]]", Rarity tells the legend of the unicorn sorceress Mistmane, who leaves a trail of flowers behind as she wanders Equestria to spread beauty everywhere.

* ''Fanfic/TriptchContinuum'': This is part of earth pony magic, and is basically the only way that ponies know how to farm, relying on Earth Ponies to make the land able to support farming, with what's termed the "Cornucopia Effect".

* Aphrodite from the cartoon series of ''WesternAnimation/HerculesTheSeries'' leaves small flowers wherever she walks. Mind you, they quickly disappear again.

* The Spring Sprite in the "Firebird Suite" segment of ''Disney/Fantasia2000'', most likely inspired by ''Princess Mononoke''.

* Aphrodite from the cartoon series of ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'' leaves small flowers wherever she walks. Mind you, they quickly disappear again.

** In ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'', when Pteppic's father dies, making him a divine emperor, his friends notice grass growing from the city pavement wherever he steps, a wooden table starts budding, and all the grain in a bakery [[HilarityEnsues attempts to burst into life.]]
** ''Discworld/{{Wintersmith}}'' is the Trope Namer; it was called this (and the [[CanisLatinicus Latinized]] "Ped Fecundis") when Tiffany Aching developed it. Of course, this being ''Discworld'', it is played for laughs.
** A related thing happens to junior witch Magrat Garlick in ''Discworld/WyrdSisters''. (Magrat is youngest witch, the Maiden of the trio, a role associated with Spring and fertility.) Faced with the conundrum of a locked and unopenable heavy oak door, she lays a hand on it, concentrates, and restores life-force to the wood causing it to "remember when it was a tree" and to grow, put forth leaves, and bear fruit with acorns. Thus causing the wood to cease being a door and burst its hinges. Granny Weatherwax, the "crone" of the triad, a role associated with Death and Winter, frankly admits she'd have gone about it differently by attacking the stone of the surrounding wall.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal, Apricity Brabble is a young Lancre witch who is more at home with the long slow cycles of green growing things than she is with people. She gives creative thought to the interplay between the anthropomorphic personaltiies of the Wintersmith and the Summer Lady, and wonders where the two intermediate seasons of Spring, when you plant seeds, and Autumn, when you harvest the crop, fit into the scheme of things. A Witch, in tune with the cycles of life and of plant growth, finds this thought can turn her into an avatar of both. She discovers she can do the fertile feet thing - but only with things like oats, barley, wheat and spelt.

* This is part of earth pony magic in FanFic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse. In addition to flowing through their bodies to grant SuperStrength and enhanced durability and endurance, earth pony magic also leaks out their hooves to infuse the ground with fertility. It's most prominent for those earth ponies who are actually farmers, but every earth pony in a town contributes to the fertility of its farms through their magic. It's this effect that allows Equestrian agriculture to be so insanely productive for the general tech level.
* Avalina, the unassuming farmgirl in ''Fanfic/HopeForTheHeartless'', has an extraordinarily strong aura of life. During the months she's forced to live in the [[WalkingWasteland Horned King's]] castle, life starts to brew in the lich's [[{{Mordor}} barren lands]], culminating in an entire forest with animal life. She also [[LivingEmotionalCrutch brings out positive sensations]] in the Horned King to the point that [[spoiler:his heart comes back to life after centuries of being dormant, and his aura is no longer deadly]].

* Crysta by the end of ''WesternAnimation/FernGullyTheLastRainforest''.

There are a lot of ways to tell the White Hats from the Black Hats, but one pretty good [[IncrediblyLamePun rule of (green) thumb]] is that anyone who can bring flowers into existence just by stepping on soil is ''probably'' not evil. This person is not just a FriendToAllLivingThings but a potent force for good who is very likely a MessianicArchetype, a PhysicalGod, or a credible runner up. At the very least they have a GreenThumb, and in extreme cases are so powerful and so Good that their aura bleeds out into the world as [[WorldHealingWave a source of healing and growth.]]

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', 2nd Edition TabletopGame/{{Planescape}} settingMonstrous Compendium Appendix II. The T'uen-Rin is a unicorn-like planar being with powerful spellcasting abilities. Flowers quickly grow wherever their hooves touch the earth.

%%** ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''
*** Lúthien Tinúviel does this. [[{{Troperiffic}} And how]].
*** The Elven High King Fingolfin.
---->''...and Fingolfin unfurled his blue and silver banners, and blew his horns, and flowers sprang beneath his marching feet, and the ages of the stars were ended.''

* In ''Anime/Pokemon3: Spell of the Unown'', the illusory Entei makes crystals grow where he steps down on the ground. The plot of the movie involves the Pokémon Unown causing similar crystals to grow, and since they created Entei, it serves to connect the two together. It becomes obvious that the Unown can only affect reality within an area defined by the crystal growth. Hence Entei isn't making crystals grow wherever he steps, the Unown are making crystals grow so Entei can step on them.

* It happens in ''WesternAnimation/KirikouAndTheSorceress'' [[spoiler:when [[KidHero Kirikou]] pulls out [[HotWitch Karaba's]] magical thorn from her back, automatically, [[HeelFaceTurn making her good]] and reverting her WalkingWasteland so the plants and flowers grow back prettier than before. Truly eyeful!]]

** ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In the episode "Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E16CampfireTales Campfire Tales]]", Rarity tells the legend of the unicorn sorceress Mistmane, who leaves a trail of flowers behind as she wanders Equestria to spread beauty everywhere.

* There is a Yiddish folktale about two girls, a kind one and a mean one. The kind one received a blessing that caused roses to spring up where she walked, and the mean girl got a curse that made nettles spring up in her footsteps.

* The Christian hymn "Morning Has Broken" (which has a popular version by Cat Stevens) says plants sprang into existence when God walked in the Garden of Eden.