When wasn't a mandrake a mandrake?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
December 18, 2003
Series: | 1 | | 2 |
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Warner Bros.—>Click here for HarryPotterShop.com!
The Scholastic Store Online—>Shop at Scholastic for Harry Potter!
Suggested Reading—>Click here.
Killer Smart Store Links—>Click here.
Killer Picks: Harry Potter Boxed Set 1-6, Dark Materials Trilogy, Triwizard Cup—>Click here.
"I Solemnly Swear" Adult T-Shirt, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, & Hermione Dolls—>Click here.
The sorcerer's root or mandrake (Atropa mandragora Linnaeus, aka Mandragora officinalis) is native to southern Europe and the Levant (eastern Mediterranean). The brown root grows up to a meter (3 feet) and was reputed to take the shape of a human.
In 1597, John Gerard touched on the legend; mandrake was believed "never or very seldome growing naturally but under a gallowes, where the matter that hath fallen from the dead body hath given it the shape of a man; and the matter of a woman, the substance of a female plant...." He pooh-poohed the idea that mandrake roots were shaped like humans, "I my selfe and my servants also have digged up, planted and replanted very many, and yet never could either perceive shape of man or woman...."
(The Herbal, Gerard, 1633 edition)
But legends persisted and were probably started by the misuse of mandrake's hallucinogenic tropane alkaloids—hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and atropine. Physicians used mandrake extracts to induce sleep especially before surgery or for insomniacs, but witches were reported to use the plant in orgiastic rituals.
Simple possession of the root was believed to make barren women conceive sons and to bring luck and blessings on a household. Which meant the root was valuable, but legends also prevented people from digging their own—its reported scream could kill the digger. To save the effort and keep oneself from harm, it was easier to purchase the root and a perfect fund-raiser for the confidence artist.
Many of the mandrakes during Gerard's era were the large tuberous roots of bryony (Bryonia alba or B. dioica), a member of the Cucurbitaceae, the melon and cucumber family. Gerard warned the gullible, "But the idle drones that have little or nothing to do but eate and drinke, have bestowed some of their time in carving the roots of Brionie, forming them to the shape of men & women...." This 'confidence art' was centuries old; Mrs. Grieve stated that these puppettes and mammettes brought as much as thirty gold ducats (a coin in the 1300s) in Italy. (A Modern Herbal, Mrs. M. Grieve, 1931, reprinted 1996, Barnes & Noble)
The Vascular Plant Image Gallery on the Botany Server of Texas A&M University has a photograph of young mandrakes in taken in Tunisia by Albert C. Perdeck. To view the photograph, click on the link:
http://botany.cs.tamu.edu/FLORA/perdeck/tun_016.jpg
Series: | 1 | | 2 |
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
What is sorcerer's garlic? Herbal Folklore - March 4, 2002
How did dowsers use witch hazel? Herbal Folklore - March 8, 2004
What is so witching about hazel? Weird Plants - March 11, 2004
What plant was named for the homeland of a sorceress? What's in a Name? - January 11, 2002
What is Cupid's-dart? What's in a Name? - April 5, 2002
How did holly become a Christmas tradition? Herbal Folklore - December 23, 2002
Killer Smart Store Links:
Warner Bros.—>Click here for HarryPotterShop.com!
The Scholastic Store—>Shop at Scholastic for Harry Potter!
National Geographic—>Click here
Discovery Channel Store—>Click here.
A&E/The History Channel—>Click here.
Museum Store Company—>Click here.
NOVICA—>Click here.
The NASA Space Store—>Click here.
|
BACK TO TOP
