We all panned out trying to find the Mana Sapling after Tank confirmed nothing was alive in this forest except plants and us by using an Earth spell. I obviously asked if there were plant-type monsters, which was greeted with a very harsh obvious no.
But I didn't trust it here of all places for that to be true, so I stayed with Lulu, told Ace to pair up with Elaine, and gave Tank another job of finding the way up as the white door wasn't here.
We had long split out combing the area but hadn't stubbled on the Mana Sapling. It was small, so we could have missed it. But we weren't really looking for the purple and white sapling on the ground but rather feeling for the power we'd get when we neared it from all the mana it produces, as Lulu said.