Ok, well I am not sure where you are in the game but I will try to help you in a couple of ways.
There is a site called Last Day of Work and they developed this game. If you go there and quickly sign up for an account. (It is a very safe reputable site) then you can click on the forums link and it has every single answer you could ever want to know for this game.
I can't remember where the black flower is but you will make stew in the lab once it is fixed up to the point where you can see a pot in the fireplace. Make sure you pick up all the lab items scattered all over the island. Things live bowls, vases, broken dishes, etc. Put a villager on these things and they will take it back to the lab. Once all the items are returned, you should see a difference.
I would definitely visit that site for great game help.
There are six "strange plants" in the game. You have to have a villager study these plants in order to solve one of the puzzles. One is the "odd" plant in the upper left corner, near the dry grass that you need to start the fire. The second one is the large dark blue flower just to the right of the gong encasement. The third is a lavender flower to the right of the second one, above the graveyard area & between a pale blue & a yellow flower. The fourth is the black "chained" (because it looks like a bead necklace) plant just above the diving area at the waterfall. The fifth is the bright red globes to the right of the stream at the lower end, just below where you build the dam. The sixth is the large orange flower at the bottom center of the screen.
After you buy Level 2 Exploration, you will see something in the firewood pile. Drop a villager on it, and they will take the cauldron back to the fire. To make a stew, you drop a villager on the empty cauldron at the fire. (Your fire has to be burning for this.) They'll drag the cauldron onto the fire. Drop the villager on the cauldron again, and they go get water for the stew. After the water is in the stew, drop a villager a third time on the cauldron, and they will add food to the stew. You also have to add THREE herbs, which are any of the "strange plants" your villagers have studied. It doesn't make any difference what order you add the herbs, water & food in. Once all the ingredients are in, you have a stew.
There are 56 different combinations of herbs, which result in 18 different recipes. Anything with green smoke coming from it is bad for your villagers - anything from inedible to making your villagers ill.
One recipe is needed to retrieve the sunken Gong piece, as someone else has mentioned elsewhere. One recipe will completely restore all of your villagers health points. Others do various things.
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