Botanical notes
Haibane Renmei
The structure from which the haibane emerge is called a "cocoon" by the characters, but that's not strictly correct. A cocoon is a protective sheath made by an insect. The haibane "cocoon" is part of a plant that grows from a sprout the size of a "dandelion's puff" (top). I would call it a "caudex," a thickened section of a stem or root that a plant uses to store water and nutrients or, in this case, a developing haibane. I'd like to know more about this plant -- apparently it can grow in near-total darkness and without water or soil -- but all I can conclude is that it is a dicot.
However, "cocoon" may still be the preferable term, even though it isn't quite right. Cocoons are associated with metamorphosis, and since what emerges from the structure in Haibane Renmei is no longer human but haibane, "cocoon" is appropriate.
Hikari says that bell nuts come in different colors because the growers add verdigris or iron to the soil. I'm skeptical. The only instance I can think of in which soil additives can change a plant's color are indicator flowers, such as the hydrangeas that bloom blue in acid soil and pink in alkaline (or is it the other way around?). More likely the different colors are the result of selection and breeding.
Noir
I thought initially that the "belladonna lily" that Mireille carries in episode three was invented by the writer. Belladonna, Atropa belladonna, is a highly toxic member of the nightshade family but is nothing at all like a lily. However, a bit of googling turned up Amaryllis belladonna, an African native that is indeed called a "belladonna lily." It's a member of the Amaryllidaceae, not the Liliaceae, so it's not a true lily. Its depiction in Noir is not accurate: the belladonna lily has a cluster of trumpet-shaped flowers at the top of a leafless stem, but Mireille's flowers are drawn like true Lilium lilies with bowl-shaped flowers and leafy stems. (There are other inaccuracies in the picture above; e.g., monocots don't have five-petaled flowers.)
Just as the belladonna lily does exist but isn't really a lily, so the "alpine rose" found in episode twelve does exist, but it's not actually a rose. It's a species of rhododendron found in the mountains of central Europe, Rhododendron ferrugineum. A few times the flower is depicted with six lobes instead of five, but generally, as far as I can judge, its depiction in Noir is reasonably accurate.
Martian Successor Nadesico
It's encouraging to learn that cacti will thrive on Mars within a couple of centuries.
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