Bushroot, formerly Dr. Reginald Bushroot, is a supervillain and adversary of Darkwing Duck.
History
As revealed in "Beauty and the Beet", Bushroot was once a researcher who was seeking to tap the secrets of photosynthesis to benefit intelligent beings, Bushroot was mocked by his colleagues. An experiment gone wrong resulted in him becoming half Duck, half plant. His sympathies quickly turned to the latter half, and he became a criminal mastermind who used plants in his crimes. This quickly earned him an enemy in the person of Darkwing Duck.
In "Night of the Living Spud", Bushroot attempts to create a plant bride for himself; however, an accident during the attempt results in the creation of a monstrous vampiric potato.
In "Easy Come, Easy Grows", Bushroot creates money that grows into plants in order to facilitate his latest evil plot.
In "Just Us Justice Ducks", Bushroot teams up with the Liquidator to grow a massive beanstalk under St. Canard's police station. Darkwing arrives to stop them, but is unable to do so when they trick Stegmutt into interfering with his attempts. The pair are then revealed to be part of the Fearsome Five, an alliance of villains also including Megavolt and Quackerjack and led by Negaduck. Working together, the five succeed in capturing St. Canard, and later defeated Darkwing, seemingly resulting in his demise.
Bushroot and his cohorts soon began terrorizing St. Canard, with Bushroot fighting and defeating Darkwing's would-be ally Morgana Macawber. After delivering her to Negaduck, he began bickering with the other members of the Fearsome Five, which Negaduck settled by dividing the city into four sections. However, Bushroot and the others took umbrage at his claiming the city's wealth for himself, and turned against Negaduck. However, they soon teamed up with him again in order to deal with the returned Darkwing and his newly assembled allies, the Justice Ducks. However, the heroes were able to defeated Bushroot and his cohorts through cooperation.
In "Life, the Negaverse, and Everything", Bushroot and his teammates followed Negaduck as he left to visit his own secret headquarters. The trail led them to a bakery, where they encountered Darkwing and through him through a portal. Negaduck, however, was furious with them, as the portal led to his home dimension of the Negaverse. Unbeknownst to Bushroot, his counterpart from that reality-a member of the Friendly Four-would help Darkwing overthrow Negaduck's rule of his universe's St. Canard.
In "It's a Wonderful Leaf", a bad experience during Christmas shopping leads Bushroot to try and ruin the holiday for everyone. Using remote control receivers shaped like Christmas tree stars, he brings an army of Christmas trees to life to steal presents and Christmas-related items. His plan proves quite effective, with his trees-particularly the massive specimen "Douglas Fir"-proving a challenge for Darkwing. However, Bushroot is ultimately defeated when Darkwing sprays him and his trees with the water from a broken fire hydrant, which quickly freezes them all in a coating of ice.
In "Jail Bird", Bushroot joins the rest of the Fearsome Five in stealing the Mystic Eye Jewel, only to be abandoned by Negaduck and sent to prison. Darkwing infiltrates the prison in an attempt to learn Negaduck's plans, but learns too late of his plan to spring Bushroot and the others. However, after Negaduck steals their powers with the jewel to become Mega Negaduck, Bushroot and his teammates agree to help Darkwing. With their knowledge of their various weaknesses, Mega Negaduck's powers are defeated, and eventually returned to Bushroot and the others. However, Darkwing then defeats them again, sending all five back to prison.
Behind the scenes
Bushroot's origins and villainous motif are similar to those of the DC Comics villain Poison Ivy.
A pitch for the never produced Justice Ducks series included Bushroot as one of the many villains the heroic team would have faced, along with the other Fearsome Five members, Taurus Bulba, Major Synapse, Professor Moliarty, Tuskernini, and F.O.W.L.[1]
