Compound plants in the VMS ?

[ReneZ]

As far as I am concerned, this is clearly not an "all or nothing" question.

FWIW, I do agree with @bi3mw, and others, that such compound plants are not at all typical or usual for herbals of the time.

For me, there are two closely related suggestions or classifications, namely "fantasy plants" or "plants drawn from written descriptions". Again, as underlined by Marco, the alchemical herbals and parts of the Cambridge herbal may serve as useful examples.

Both have "fantasy plants", but in the alchemical herbals these are in many cases based on existing plants. When drawing fantasy plants, inevitably there will be elements that are taken from real plants in nature.
Also, when "drawing plants from written descriptions", the artist would use forms or shapes that he might know from nature or from other illustrated herbals.

In both cases, there could be a combination of real, existing plants, and composites.

That plants drawn from written descriptions also appear in the important "Tractatus" tradition was for me an eye-opener. This specifically concerns the illustrations of Musa, as clarified by Marco some time (years?) ago.