Birds of Paradise Go Plantable in Upland as Life Rollout Welcomes a Tropical Bloom

In Brief:

• Upland (official site) has switched on planting for Birds of Paradise, the newest species to join its Life gameplay system.
• Seeds change hands as Legits, but the act of planting destroys the Legit and locks the plant to a single property, where a steady STEM supply is all that keeps it alive.
• The update extends a phased rollout that kicked off with nurseries in November 2025 and continued with seed generation in December 2025.

The tropical flower is now among the species players can place on their properties, after Upland made Birds of Paradise plantable.

“Birds of Paradise are now live to plant in Upland!” the company said in a post on X. “Add a tropical splash to your properties and start planting today.”

That sequencing mirrors how the Life rollout has worked so far. A seed type first becomes available to generate at nurseries, and only later does planting get enabled. Violet seeds followed the identical path, spending a stretch as nursery-generated items before Upland confirmed they weren’t ready to plant yet.

How planting works

Seeds take the form of Legits, the tradable asset class that players buy and sell at nurseries. Plant one and it is burned. Whatever grows from it stays bound to that property for good and cannot be traded.

After that, the challenge is upkeep. Plants develop and evolve as time passes, but only if they are looked after, and Upland has warned that neglected plants may wither away. There is no coming back from death.

Care was divided into two separate systems under Phase 2, which was previewed in February 2026. Feeding a plant maintains its health, something Upland has likened to watering. Petting plants, meanwhile, raises their wellbeing.

STEM is the running cost

April 2026 brought STEM, introduced as a conversion from Protem, the resource Upland sold in the lead-up to the Life launch. Sitting alongside UPX and Sparklet as the third resource token, its only purpose is keeping living things alive.

It is not tradeable and never will be. Upland describes it as “ever-inflationary by design.” The company has also framed the $1 to 1,000 STEM rate as a starting point rather than a guarantee, reserving the right to adjust costs for gameplay balance.

Where seeds come from

Nurseries are a Metaventure type purchased from the Upland store and constructed on player properties. They arrived Nov. 13, 2025, as a permanent store item, with no limit on how many a player can build.

A month later, seed generation followed. On Totem-enabled nurseries — properties that hold one of the 5,555 Totems — any visiting player can spend $SPARKLET to mint a random seed Legit, and the property owner is compensated. Seed generation therefore became the first $SPARKLET spend mechanic capable of creating Legits, exactly as the token white paper described. No Totem is needed to sell seeds.

Seventeen seed types spanning three categories — trees, shrubs and flowers — were available to generate at launch. Rarity tiers run standard, limited, rare and ultra rare, and the odds shift depending on climate zone. Evergreens, roses and tulips are favored in cold zone cities such as New York, Chicago, Detroit, London and Park City. Mild zone locations including San Francisco, Tokyo, Lisbon, Paris and Sydney lean toward shrubs. Heat-loving species like oil palm, orange daisy and lavender come up more often in hot zone cities such as Miami, Las Vegas, Dallas, Hong Kong and Madrid.

Every zone can produce lawn grass. White rose and purple tulip sit at ultra rare and are difficult to pull no matter where you are.

Background

Blossom Season missions launched in Upland on April 14, 2026, among them a Seed Surge week mission running through April 21 that tasked players with generating five seeds at any nursery.

Farming was announced on May 28, 2026, pitched at players who want to specialize in large-scale production while casual participants continue engaging with the troves ecosystem at whatever pace suits them. The feature remains in development, though Upland has opened an early sale for players willing to buy in ahead of its release.

March 2026 brought a shake-up to the Sparklet economy, with Upland trimming in-app Sparklet packages by 35% and shifting larger bundles to web only. The reasoning given was to steer players toward exchanges, where “real player demand” determines price. $SPARKLET trades on Uniswap.

Plant care is designed to loop back into Troves, the game’s progression layer. Upland highlighted that link in the same November 2025 update that scrapped send limits and removed sends from the store, a change the company said was necessary for features relying on unrestricted travel, among them Residents, Uppies and Troves.