Aside from tobacco, grains, nuts, and fruits are future (baby?) plants. They're effectively the fetuses -- feti . . . feteese? -- of what would otherwise become next years plants.

Ken V.

I was confused by that too. But maybe she could tell those plant would not be happy as adults, and that is way it take her so long to pick out her fruit.

Aside from tobacco, grains, nuts, and fruits are future (baby?) plants. They're effectively the fetuses -- feti . . . feteese? -- of what would otherwise become next years plants.

Ken V.

That's true. So it would make even more sense for her to smoke the leaves and not the buds. She would just have to wait for nature to take it's course so it did not hurt the plant.

Got it: Anya is actually burning joss sticks, maybe as an offering to mother earth. Or maybe they protect her against R.

Those joss sticks are prepared with wilted flowers and pollen and sap that flowers and trees and bushes naturally discard. As Anya is attuned to nature forces, she magicked those sticks to make them look and smell like cigarettes so as not to arouse surprise.