Barrayar had a mixture of native and imported plants and animals. The native ones are as follows.
Plantlife[]
Northern Continent
- Deerslayer vine – a plant grown by gardeners which tended to be touchy about illumination levels
- love-lies-itching – a plant that grew in massed groups suitable for borders, it was bright red
- razor-grass – a tall, billowing, blond plant that was not truly a grass, but did meet the razor qualification
- damnweed, goatbane
- henbloat – a red-brown weed with a stalk; it was large enough to conceal a rad bug
- skellytum – similar to a tree, it had a moisture-conserving central barrel. It was generally brownish and about 5 meters in height, though it could be bonsai'd.
- scrubwire – a low, rounded plant with muted colors and a strong, spicy scent
- chuffgrass – a tall grassy plant with a sickly, citrus scent
- zipweed – a tall plant with blond and maroon stripes and a faint, sweet fragrance
Southern Continent
- Bloody puffwad grew on the western slopes of the Black Escarpment. It was dark red and fuzzy and sometimes used in floral arrangements.
- Strangle-vines grew on the flat plains.
- skellytum
Animal life[]
- "Bugs" – these were "tiny short-lived creatures that everyone on Barrayar but biologists called bugs"
- Horned hoppers – these were small creatures that could be caught and killed by house cats
- Large creatures were known to live in the seas
See also North Continent and South Continent, particularly for references.