| Phoenix Wright |
| Charley. A quite decorative plant. He's a handful, but I've grown quite attached to the little fella. He also helps me to remember all the good times with Mia. |
Charley is a potted plant of the species Cordyline stricta (also known as the Slender Palm Lily or Narrow-leaved Palm Lily) that has been in the Wright Anything Agency ever since the agency's founding by Mia Fey as the Fey & Co. Law Offices. Fey loved the plant, even giving it its name, and going as far as to make it the firm's official mascot.
Mia's death[]
- Main article: Turnabout Sisters
Office floor plan immediately after the murder.
Charley was caught in the cross-fire during Mia Fey's murder at the hands of Redd White, as her student, Phoenix Wright, found him knocked over in the trashed office. However, by the time Wright was allowed to return after the police investigation, the plant had been returned to its normal upright position. It was during this return to the office that the presence of Charley showed an unexpected botanical knowledge in Detective Dick Gumshoe, who quickly chipped in with the plant's scientific name while Wright was trying to identify it.
After Wright was able to prove White's guilt in court, he inherited the offices and left it a similar state to the manner his mentor had kept it, including keeping and taking care of Charley. However, it would not be until the following month that Wright would even learn of the plant's name when Mia's younger sister Maya channeled her and it came up in a conversation between the two.
Life at the Wright Anything Agency[]
Charley has been subjected to Maya Fey's overenthusiastic watering, which has resulted in the plant looking a little "swollen" and has led Wright to wonder if Maya was perfecting her water torture technique on the defenseless plant. Ema Skye's well-meaning attempts to improve Charley with an unknown additive resulted in the plant appearing a little yellow. Despite these unintentional threats to its life, Charley has been a mainstay in the office throughout Wright's entire career, including his disbarment and eventual reinstatement. Athena Cykes has occasionally caught Wright staring at Charley and smiling, but he doesn't talk about the plant much with his subordinates.
Saved from repossession[]
- Main article: The Magical Turnabout
Even Charley did not escape potential repossession.
When Phoenix Wright's adopted daughter Trucy was arrested for the death of Mr. Reus during a magic show rehearsal, the producer in charge of her show tried to claim compensation for liability using a contract she had been tricked into signing. When Phoenix's subordinates Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes returned to the office during their investigation into the incident, they discovered that everything in the office had been covered in repossession labels, including Charley. Thankfully, Justice was able to null the terms of the forged contract by proving Trucy's innocence, thereby also saving the office and Charley.
Name[]
- Charley's name may be a homage to "Chuck the Plant", an in-game potted plant that originally appeared in the 1987 Lucasfilm Games graphic adventure game Maniac Mansion; and later reappeared in other Lucas adventure titles like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure and Tales of Monkey Island.
- Alternatively, the name might come from Charlwoodia stricta, one of the taxonomic synonyms for Charley's species.