Like many other Mythical Pokémon, the narrative surrounding Shaymin is vague at best. Its presence in Sinnoh is attested since long ago, the first known contact with humans dating back to the time of Celestica. In the course of history, it would have manifested in numerous locations, from Floaro Gardens in Legends: Arceus to Floaroma Meadow and Flower Paradise in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum — not to mention its appearances spin-off games.
One of the core aspects of the Pokémon is the concept of “gratitude” [感謝]; referencing the Pokédex, Shaymin is able to perceive the sense of thankfulness in the hearts of people, making the flowers growing on its body blooming. According to Junichi Masuda, even its name シェイミ [sheimi] is based on the Chinese 謝謝 [xièxie, “thanks”].
The flowers all over its body burst into bloom if it is lovingly hugged and senses gratitude.
Those flowers are reminiscent of the Gracidea, although they aren’t apparently one and the same. Their in-game icon shows minor differences in appearance — those on the Mythical Pokémon lack the reproductive organs in the center, implying their sterility. This is seemingly why Shaymin can’t auto-trigger its form change, an external Gracidea being required.
When exposed to the flower’s scent, the Gratitude Pokémon changes in look and typing: the normal Land Forme [ランドフォルム] shifts to the aerodynamic Sky Forme [スカイフォルム], adding Flying to its Grass Type.
The blooming of Gracidea flowers confers the power of flight upon it. Feelings of gratitude are the message it delivers.
Upon taking in the scent of a particular rare flower, Shaymin is enveloped in light, and its tiny body transforms. I took a whiff of the flower myself, but alas, my body remained unchanged.
Given the connection between the flowers and the Pokémon, Gracideas assumed a symbolic connotation, often gifted to express gratitude in special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries — weddings as well, if Shadows of Almia can be trusted.
A flower sometimes bundled into a bouquet to be given as an expression of gratitude on special occasions, such as birthdays and anniversaries.
Listening to the many NPCs who give us the flower in later games, we come to know the allegory originated in the early days of Sinnoh — evidently spreading in neighboring regions like Almia only at a later date.
“Since early times in Sinnoh, people made a bouquet of Gracidea flowers to give someone to show their feelings of appreciation. Isn’t that interesting? By giving a Gracidea bouquet, you don’t have to say a word, and someone will know how grateful you are. Quite a delightful custom!”
But if the “gratitude” is now thought in a broader sense, how was the connection made in the first place? According to Laventon, Shaymin used to appear with the end of winter, bringing the blooming of vegetation that announces the coming of spring. It was to this feeling of gratefulness that originally moved people to give thanks to “the heavens” for the Mythical Pokémon arrival — Floaroma Meadow being equally made flourish when someone “expressed thanks for the blessings of nature”.
When the turning of seasons brings the cruel winter to its end and the joyous people give thanks to the heavens, Shaymin appears and covers the withered land with flowers.
The relation between Shaymin and the sky is an interesting one, assuming a more divine connotation on a closer inspection. Not only the concept of “heaven” is remarked by the Hisuian researcher — the kanji 天 being an archaic term for the sky, often imbued with a sacred implication in Hinduism and Buddhism; when assuming the Sky Forme, the Pokémon ability changes from Natural Cure to Serene Grace, more properly てんのめぐみ [Heavenly Blessing].
In other words, the Gracidea allows Shaymin to get closer to the skies, both literally and in a more spiritual sense. Thinking of the Pokémon as a “messenger from the heavens”, which grants its blessing to the land in response of the gratitude of people, makes even possible to think the specific flower is a mere symbol for the actual change in form: as humans started to use that specific vessel reminiscent of Shaymin’s blossoms to express their gratitude for the good harvest, that’s what the Pokémon now recognizes as an indicator of their faith.
Despite what developers confirmed, the Pokémon name is also a clear nod to the Hebrew שמי [Shamayim], the “heavens” where God and angels dwell in biblical cosmology. Its in-lore origin may, then, not be that far from its inspiration — an emissary of Arceus being sent on Earth to sense the faith and gratitude in the hearts of men would’ve been one of the last actions of the creator before going to slumber during the mythical era.
The Gratitude Pokémon would serve the role of “angels”, the small wing in the head of the Sky Forme inspired to their common iconography in modern times. “Angels” — plural — because regardless of specifics the Pokémon is highly suggested to be a species more than a single individual: even if we want to force the ones in Sinnoh, Almia, Oblivia, and Lental to a single specimen — which would cause its own series of problems since you can transfer the Guardian Sings’ one to Generation IV titles — Mystery Dungeon establishes the existence of a whole tribe of Shaymin which set its village at the foot of the Sky Peak; and while the canonicity of the specific event may be debatable, it speaks enough on how developers allowed Chunsoft to work with the Mythical Pokémon. Indeed, official artwork for Pokémon Platinum shows interaction between two specimens.
If Shaymin really was conceived as a divine envoy during the early stages of humanity, we can also understand a bit better its relation with vegetation. From its power to make the land flourish and its anatomy that mixes fauna with flora, some fans have proposed the Mythical Pokémon as the ultimate origin of the plant kingdom — but this notion would be denied by a placement so late in the chronology.
It lives in common flower patches but is rarely noticed. It is often mistaken for a flowering plant when curled up.
Indeed, Shaymin is never described to make vegetation arise from nothing, but rather giving new life to withered plants. This is what we directly witness in its dedicated event in Legends: Arceus, and the mechanism behind this process is briefly described by the Pokédex.
It can dissolve toxins in the air to instantly transform ruined land into a lush field of flowers.
Shaymin is able absorb the pollution in the atmosphere, purifying the lands from toxins and making it flourish in fields of beautiful flowers — hence the ability Natural Cure heals any harmful status condition. The peculiar move Seed Flare seems to be the in-game representation of this power, a “shock wave” of natural energy generated from within the body, which the 11th movie’s screenwriters rendered as an absorption of unclean air converted and released in a burst of purified light.
The one occasion in the main games when its powers seem to be tied more to creation is the dedicated event in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. Route 224 is described as a “miniature of Sinnoh” in its description due to the diversity of its environments. From grassy fields to water trails, the path ends with a rocky and arid landscape with a peculiar white stone at the very edge. If interacted with Oak’s Letter in our possession, flowers will bloom on the ground and reveal the route to Flower Paradise [花の楽園] where Shaymin resides.
But apart from strengthening the connection to the angelic realm — 楽園 is commonly used to refer to Christian Paradise or the Garden of Eden — the whole sequence is rather odd in presentation. Interaction with the with the stone will reveal the rock to have a polished and unmarked surface, reflecting like a mirror; this despite inscriptions being visible both to the player and to Oak. Since the Professor had to decipher the writings, we can infer the text to be either ancient or purposefully encrypted. Apparently, the stone is for a Trainer to engrave its thoughts of gratitude after growing as a person during their adventure. With the concept of “Trainer” being still young in the Hisui we visit, the whole event appears to be a riddle set up more recently — and the stone is in fact absent from Legends: Arceus.
The surface is unmarked. It is polished like a mirror.
“Without any further ado, I’d like you to examine this stone tablet. Something just like it was also discovered in the Kanto region. I want to ask for your help in solving the mystery behind this. I tried deciphering the engravings on the stone tablet. Apparently, it is for a Trainer to engrave his or her thoughts after growing as a person on an adventure. A Trainer fitting that description would be you. That’s why I’m asking you for your help. You’ve met many people and Pokémon; you’ve experienced many things that shaped you into the person you are. I want you to sincerely tell me who affected you the most. Tell me, to whom do you most want to say your thanks?”
Expressing our thanks to the white mineral will make blossom the area around, and Seabreak Path appear before our eyes, sharing the same OST with Floaroma Town which also has a history with Shaymin. This “sea-splitting road” [海割れの道] connects Route 224 to Flower Paradise, described as an island in the map despite the trail. It would be absurd for the Mythical Pokémon to respond to our prayers creating a whole bedrock, especially considering man-made stairs are present both in game and in artwork. In other words, the path is normally covered by some sort of illusion, which only a heart Shaymin recognizes as worthy is able to dispel. The fact we see our own image reflected in the white stone instead of the engravings may just be part of the same mirage: we are worthy, the answer always lied within ourselves, so there should be no need for further trials — something ultimately made vain by the need of an actual trigger for the event.
Shaymin itself doesn’t seem to be capable of casting these types of illusions, so it must be the work of whoever wrote the message and built the stairs. The motive is clear, this is a way to prevent ill minds to spoil the paradise and the angel that dwells in its garden. The culprit is more unclear, but someone from the past familiar both with Shaymin and the concept of Pokémon Trainer is fitting both for our character in Legends: Arceus and members of the Diamond Clan acquainted with its dedicated quest. With so much history lost between the games, it’s not weird for Shaymin to have been purposefully hidden from common sight.
With that in mind, flora arising from nothing may be just part of breaking the deception. Still, spin-off titles like Shadows of Almia do depict spontaneous flowering among Shaymin’s powers, so it’s not something completely out of possibility. But even admitting the secondary setting to be coherent with primary canon and the idea wasn’t seeds or deadwood were made flourish from underground, the Pokémon kickstarting the plant kingdom as a whole would still be preposterous. For instance, it would cause all sorts of problems for its evolutive history. Shaymin is associated with flowers more than flora in broader terms, as made evident by its design. Would it mean angiosperms developed first? If yes, then we should question how gymnosperms and more primitive lifeforms found fitting to lose their flowers, and also how the structure could have so much success in absence of pollinating animals. If not, then Shaymin would be strictly linked to plant features it wouldn’t be able to reproduce directly.
The existence of Gracideas is problematic in a similar vain. If Shaymin is able to produce fertile kinds of these flowers, why the required step to pick one for the form change? If not, why does it present similar species on its back? Suggesting the Pokémon as a common ancestor simply makes more questions arise than it answers. To this add plants seem to generally follow real-life evolutive history from the little we know. Seaweed was surely crawling in the oceans inhabited by Lileep 100 million years ago, and Generation IV references something similar to the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse to have occurred in the Pokémon World possibly even before.
It disguises itself as seaweed by making its tentacles sway. Unsuspecting prey that come too close are swallowed whole. It became extinct 100 million years ago.
So, the genesis of plants remains a mystery. It’s unclear if non-animal lifeforms may have equally developed from Mew, or if they took a completely different branch in the path of evolution. Given we can’t trace all life to a single monocellular organism, flora either emerged as a peculiar mutation of the New Species Pokémon, originated independently, or was brought in essence by a third party yet unknown. In the hope of receiving more concrete answers in future iterations, Shaymin doesn’t seem to have much business in this part of the story.