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Bulbasaur is a quadruped, reptilian creature that somewhat resembles a toad or a young dinosaur with a spotted blue-green hide. It has three white toes or claws growing out from each of its four legs, its eyes are bright red and it has small teeth visible when the mouth is open.
The most notable feature of this Pokémon is the onion-like bulb on its back, which grows from a seed planted on its back by its mother at birth. Bulbasaur's bulb shares a symbiotic relationship that is beneficial for both. This allows Bulbasaur to get an enhanced boost of energy from the sun during the day (synthesis) and the bulb to remain growing and strong at night. The bulb also contains many seeds from which it draws nutrients.
Though they usually walk on four legs, a Bulbasaur can rise up on its hind legs. When it evolves into Ivysaur, the bulb becomes a larger flower bud, making it nearly impossible for one to rise on its hind legs.
The bulb can absorb sunlight, allowing Bulbasaur to restore health with Synthesis or fire a powerful SolarBeam.
Behavior
Most Bulbasaur are domesticated Pokémon, raised by breeders to be distributed as starter Pokémon in the Kanto region. Due to this, they are regarded as mostly well-behaved Pokémon. They are the easiest Pokémon to start with, due to the fact that they have a type advantage over the first two Gym Leaders in Kanto.
Bulbasaur tend to have a strong loyalty to their friends and Trainers. In The Mystery Menace, for example, a Bulbasaur was abandoned by its Trainer in the sewers of Trovitopolis and remained there for decades yet was still happy to see him when finally brought out from the sewer by Ash and his friends.
It is shown in Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden that in Kanto, large groups of Bulbasaur gather once every year in a hidden garden to become Ivysaur. It is unknown whether or not this is the case in other regions.
Bulbasaur can sometimes be found lying in the sun during the day to photosynthesize energy when food is scarce.
When a baby Pokémon, such as Togepi or a newly hatched Bulbasaur, is crying and all other methods of calming down the baby fail, Bulbasaur may use its vines in the bulb on it back to perform its Bulba-by, where it rocks the baby back and forth in the air and sings to it. This has only been recorded once by humans, making it seem that some people do not even believe that this behavior is real.
Like all starters, Bulbasaur are scarce in the wild. Sometimes they can be found in secret places such as gardens, plains near large sources of fresh water, or hiding in the forest in hollow logs, but overall, they are found far more often in the ownership of Trainers. It is native to Kanto.
Much like most Pokémon, Bulbasaur appears to be an omnivore. However, in times of scarcity, it does not need to eat much food, since the bulb on its back can store energy from the sun.
Ash's Bulbasaur first debuted in Bulbasaur and the Hidden Village as one of the Pokémon in the Hidden Village. Though initially wary of Ash, the two eventually warmed up to one another, and Bulbasaur challenged him to a battle. Using Pikachu, Ash won the battle, and Bulbasaur was captured. Unlike Charmander and Squirtle, which were captured in the two episodes following that of Bulbasaur, Bulbasaur remained in Ash's party until Bulbasaur... the Ambassador!, when Ash sent him to Professor Oak's lab to work as an ambassador between otherwise argumentative groups of Pokémon.
Much later on, when Ash was traveling in the Hoenn region, his companion May captured her own Bulbasaur after being separated from the group in Grass Hysteria!. It remained with her throughout the rest of her journey in Hoenn, helping her to compete in the regionalGrand Festival. When she traveled to Kanto to continue her journey with Ash in The Right Place and the Right Mime, May, too, left her Bulbasaur at Professor Oak's lab to learn from Ash's while she and Ash's group traveled throughout the Battle Frontier in Kanto. May retrieved it during her travels in Johto, where it evolved all the way into a Venusaur.
Other
A Bulbasaur that used to belong to the Mayor of Trovitopolis appeared in The Mystery Menace. In his childhood, the mayor abandoned his Bulbasaur and sent it into the sewers when it wouldn't evolve into Ivysaur. Aided by Misty and Tracey, Ash found the abandoned Bulbasaur while searching for his own, which had gone missing. After defeating the arrogant mayor and his personal SWAT team, Ash and company left the Bulbasaur, which had grown rather large in its time in the sewers, with Nurse Joy.
In Journey to the Starting Line, Gilbert, the son of the mayor of Pallet Town, was supposed to start his journey as a Pokémon Trainer with one of the three Kanto starter Pokémon, but they were scared off by Ash's Tauros. Professor Oak, Tracey, Delia, and Gilbert set out to find them. The Bulbasaur was the last one to be found and it was stuck in a tree that was surrounded by a group of Primeape. In the end, Bulbasaur was the one that Gilbert decided to start with.
Bulbasaur was mentioned in the first episode of the anime, Pokémon - I Choose You!, as one of the three starter Pokémon new Trainers in Pallet Town can choose from. Ash dreamed of owning one, and it was his second choice of a starter, after Squirtle. However, when he arrived at Oak's lab, it was too late, as an unnamed Trainer who started the same day had already taken it.
Bulbasaur. It bears the seed of a plant on its back from birth. The seed slowly develops. Researchers are unsure whether to classify Bulbasaur as a plant or animal. Bulbasaur are extremely calm and very difficult to capture in the wild.
Ash's Bulbasaur appears in the manga The Electric Tale of Pikachu. It first appears in the eighth chapter, You Gotta Have Friends. Bulbasaur's capture is not shown; it is simply stated when it first appears from its Poké Ball that "Ash has been busy since the last comic".
In I'm Your Venusaur, Ash and Misty travel to a town inhabited by many Bulbasaur, Ivysaur and Venusaur. There is a local legend that a giant Venusaur saved the townsfolk in battle.
Bulbasaur is a cute Pokémon born with a large seed firmly affixed to its back; the seed grows in size as the Pokémon does. Along with Squirtle and Charmander, Bulbasaur is one of the three Pokémon available at the beginning of Pokémon Red and Blue. It evolves into Ivysaur.
Brawl trophy information
"A Seed Pokémon. From birth, Bulbasaur carries a large plant seed on its back. It uses the nutrients from the seed to grow bigger and bigger. Extended exposure to the sun will cause its body and seed to grow in size. Some say that once, when the seed was much lighter, Bulbasaur was able to get around on two legs. Bulbasaur evolves into Ivysaur."
Game data
Pokédex entries
This Pokémon was unavailable prior to Generation I.
Niue released a one-dollar coin featuring Bulbasaur as part of a commemorative promotion for the Pokémon franchise, with Bulbasaur on one side and the nation's coat of arms on the other.
Bulbasaur's evolution family is the only starter Pokémon evolution family to have each member appear at least once in the Super Smash Bros. series.
Bulbasaur is the only unevolved dual type starter Pokémon.
Bulbasaur and its evolutions share the same species name as Sunkern. They both are known as the Seed Pokémon.
Along with Charmander and Squirtle, Bulbasaur is the only starter Pokémon which is found in more than one regional Pokédex, being found in both Kanto's and Johto's.
In the anime, May's Bulbasaur has little hearts on its head. It is also one of the three Pokémon that appeared in the anime with a heart-shaped spot, the others being Spinda and Wooper.
Due to the censor that prevents Pokémon with offensive nicknames being traded on the GTS, an English language Bulbasaur cannot be traded on the GTS without a nickname in Pokémon Black and White.
Origin
Bulbasaur appears to be based primarily on some form of reptile, specifically mammal-like reptiles known as Dicynodonts from the Permian period. Along with visible ears and no genuine metamorphosis stage (evolution aside), Bulbasaur appears to have more in common with mammals than amphibians like frogs and toads, which metamorphose from one definite creature into another as they mature as opposed to just growing into a larger adult version of itself the way that Bulbasaur does. Alternatively, Bulbasaur's large rounded snout, wide mouth, wide-set eyes, blotch-patterned skin, and quadraped-like movements are vaguely similar to those of certain amphibians, such as the common toad. Since Bulbasaur's "ears" do not in fact have hollows they may actually be similar to the glands present behind the eyes of many species of frogs and toads.
The bulb on its back may resemble that of a lily or onion.
Name origin
Bulbasaur is a portmanteau of the words bulb (a rounded underground storage organ present in some plants, notably those of the lily family) and the Greek saur (lizard).
Fushigidane literally means "isn't it strange?" and is also a pun on 不思議種 fushigidane (mysterious bulb).
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.