Are we taking the pictures too literally?

[Scarecrow]

It made me think that maybe the plants are just so badly depicted that people can't recognize them.

There's been extensive discussion in this forum about plants being depicted mnemonically

I'd say that the plants VMS are mostly a combination of different plant parts, ie. roots are from one, flowers from other etc., combined in a way that the intended audience would recognize and understand. Maybe they are parts (root, stem, flower..) that fall under the same topic, wound healing, stomach ache healing that the relative page is about. There is't necessary any connection in text to the names of the plants, as they are used just to illustrate the plants used on the topic, and the intended audience or recognizes them easily or has a reference material to find them somewhere else.