The plant characters in the Elceti World each call a specific land home, and within those lands we have rooted each story in a real place — a coastline, a valley, a forest, a meadow. These locations were chosen as carefully and faithfully as we could manage: grounded in native botany and biology where that is well documented, and in historical evidence — archaeological records, ancient texts, trade routes, and traditional use — where the botanical origins are older or less certain.

A chosen location is not a claim of exclusivity. Plants do not belong to borders. Many of the species in this book grow across vast regions of the world, have been carried by human hands across continents, and are claimed with equal validity by multiple cultures and landscapes. Where we have anchored a character to one place, we have done so in order to write with honesty and specificity — because a story grounded in a real hillside, a real season, and a real cultural relationship is a truer story than one that gestures vaguely at everywhere and nowhere.

We have done our best. Where the science was clear, we followed it. Where history offered us an anchor, we took it gratefully. Where gaps exist, we have tried to be transparent rather than inventive.

If you know something we don't — a deeper history, a more precise origin, a cultural connection we have missed — we would genuinely like to hear it. Every Living Thing Connects includes a place to share that knowledge, because this project is not finished and neither is our understanding of it.