I was trying to think of a good term for drawings constructed that way. It's not really a combination plant, it's intended to represent one plant and sometimes all they had to go on was something like this description from Pliny's Natural History:
"The plant itself is hardy, bushy with prickly leaves and jointed stem, a cubit high or occasionally taller, partly palish in colour, partly dark, and with a fragrant root."
It's assumed the person knows the plant by name (Eryngium). If one were to say the flowers are like teasel and the root like parsnip, that would describe it pretty well to someone who already has a general knowledge of plants. Perhaps one could call it a "referential" drawing, since it may just be a bad drawing constructed by reference to morphologically similar plants (that may or may not be related to the plant being described).
Imagine how an illustrator might interpret Pliny's "partly palish in colour, partly dark". Many plants in herbal manuscripts have some odd combinations of colors on the leaves or flowers, quite stylized, and descriptions like this might account for why they were drawn this way since Pliny didn't clarify his cryptic description.
"The plant itself is hardy, bushy with prickly leaves and jointed stem, a cubit high or occasionally taller, partly palish in colour, partly dark, and with a fragrant root."
It's assumed the person knows the plant by name (Eryngium). If one were to say the flowers are like teasel and the root like parsnip, that would describe it pretty well to someone who already has a general knowledge of plants. Perhaps one could call it a "referential" drawing, since it may just be a bad drawing constructed by reference to morphologically similar plants (that may or may not be related to the plant being described).
Imagine how an illustrator might interpret Pliny's "partly palish in colour, partly dark". Many plants in herbal manuscripts have some odd combinations of colors on the leaves or flowers, quite stylized, and descriptions like this might account for why they were drawn this way since Pliny didn't clarify his cryptic description.