Parasect is an orange, insectoid Pokémon that has been completely overtaken by the parasitic mushroom on its back. It has a small head with pure white eyes and a segmented body that is mostly hidden by the mushroom. It has three pairs of legs, with the foremost pair forming large pincers. The fungus growing on its back has a large red cap with yellow spots throughout.
The insect has been drained of nutrients and is now under the control of the fully-grown tochukaso. Parasect can often be found in caves, and can also thrive in dank forests with a suitable amount of humidity for growing fungi. Swarms of this Pokémon have been known infest trees. The swarm will drain the tree of nutrients until it dies, and will then move on to a new tree.
In the anime
Parasect in the anime
Major appearances
Parasect first featured in The Problem with Paras under the ownership of Cassandra as a very weak Paras. Cassandra needed it to evolve into a Parasect so she can use the giant mushroom to aid in her medical research. After it battled with Ash's Pokémon (albeit, all of them except his disobedient Charmeleon not trying at all), and a battle with Team Rocket, Paras evolved.
Parasect, the Mushroom Pokémon. It battles using poison spears that spread from the mushroom canopy on its back.
In the manga
Parasect in Pokémon Adventures
In the Pokémon Adventures manga
In the Gold, Silver & Crystal arc of Pokémon Adventures, Crystal uses a Parasect extensively in her Pokémon capturing, using its Spore attack to put targets to sleep. Her Parasect is seen to be capable of increasing the radius of its Spore attack to at least 3 kilometers. In Lively Larvitar, the origin of Crystal's Parasect is revealed: it, along with Crystal's Natu, Hitmonchan, and Cubone, were wild Pokémon living in Mt. Mortar and had fought with a local Arcanine that had gone berserk from a severe eye injury. Parasect was able to create medicinal spores to help Arcanine heal and Crystal recover from her fractured arms. In Lugia and Ho-Oh on the Loose (Part 1), Crystal reveals yet another ability of Parasect: it is able to use the powder attacks it possesses to combine into a wider range of spores, including one for corroding metals.
Parasect is known to infest large trees en masse and drain nutrients from the lower trunk and roots. When an infested tree dies, they move onto another tree all at once.
Parasect are known to infest the roots of large trees en masse and drain nutrients. When an infested tree dies, they move onto another tree all at once.
Parasect and Paras are the only Pokémon in the game to take more than 4 times as much damage from any one type of attack under normal battle conditions (if they have the Ability Dry Skin, they both take 5× damage from Fire-type attacks).
In Generation I, Poison-type attacks are super effective against Bug-type Pokémon, making Parasect and Paras the only Pokémon to have ever had three 4× weaknesses.
Parasect and its pre-evolved form, Paras, share their species name with Shroomish, Breloom, Foongus and Amoonguss. They are all known as the Mushroom Pokémon.
The fungus on Parasect is identified as tochukaso, an endoparasitoid that replaces the host tissue and can affect the behavior of its insect host. The base insect is a distorted version of what is probably a cicada nymph, the parasitic fungi having caused a form of neoteny.
Name origin
Parasect may be a combination of parasite (referring to the tochukasomushroom) and insect. Alternatively, it could be a combination of parasite and sect (Latin for cut).