Harry Potter Screaming Plant
While you may be familiar with the screaming anthropomorphized potato characters from the very popular Harry Potter franchise, you should probably know the idea for the character is based on a very real plant. Mandrake Roots aren’t just Fictional Harry Potter plants. Its discovery goes back to the 17th century when these plants were used for medicinal purposes. Thought to cure fertility issues, these plants became a hot commodity, although, they came at a price. To know everything about the Harry Potter screaming plant that kills anyone who gets close to it, read this post.
Harry Potter Screaming Plant: Mandrake in the Harry Potter Universe
According to the Harry Potter wiki fandom page, a Mandrake, also known as Mandragora, is a magical and sentient plant that has a root that looks like a human-like baby when the plant is young but maturing as the plant grows. When matured, its cry can be fatal to any person who hears it.
Harry Potter Screaming Plant: Portrayal of Mandrake in Fiction
Mandrake's roots have carried with their myth and legend throughout the ages. In the movie Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, students wore earmuffs to block the screams of the young mandrakes, which were thought to kill whoever heard its shrieks. However, according to lore, earmuffs won’t save you from its high pitch wails. In order to collect the mandrake without seeking an unfortunate end, farmers would tie a mandrake to a dog and then lure it with food; killing the dog but leaving you with a freshly pulled mandrake. However, it’s important to note that this is only a myth, and you, probably, won’t experience the same in real life.
Harry Potter Screaming Plant: Origins of the Mandrake
Mandrake roots originated in the Mediterranean and are part of the nightshade family. The nightshade is the same family that gives us tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, peppers, tobacco, and goji berries. However, the nightshade family is also notorious for its poisonous offspring. Historically mandrake roots have been used in conjunction with other plants as a natural painkiller. Likewise, with the proper dosages, the plants put a patient in a deep sleep so doctors could perform surgery.
Harry Potter Screaming Plant: Mandrake Plant Facts
Latin Name – Mandragora Officianarum (Solanaceae)
Other Names – Mandragora, Satan's Apple, Love Apple, Circe's Plant, Dudaim, Ladykins, Mannikin, Racoon, Berry, Bryony roots, Alraun, Devil's Testicles
Family – Nightshade
Native Home – Herbaceous perennials native to the Mediterranean and to Himalayan areas.
Edible? – No. The root, which is rather toxic, has anodyne and soporific properties. In larger amounts, it causes delirium and madness.
Origin of the Name – Recorded from Middle English, the name comes from medieval Latin mandragora, associated with a man (because of the shape of its root) and drake in the Old English sense ‘dragon’. The Arab name mandragora means ‘hurtful to cattle’. This is where the name 'Satan's Apple' comes from. The little yellow fruit resembles apples and the cows will eat them.
Harry Potter Screaming Plant: Use of Mandrake in Traditional Medicine
Mandrake was the most popular anesthetic during the Middle Ages and used as a narcotic in the Elizabethan Age. During operations in Pliny's day, a piece of the root was given to the patient to chew before undergoing operations. The Ancients, including Romans, Greeks, and Celts considered it a soporific and an anodyne.
Harry Potter Screaming Plant: Mandrake Plant & Witches
The ages-old legend of the shrieking mandrake, as portrayed in the world of Harry Potter, holds that a mandrake will emit an ear-piercing scream if uprooted, killing the person who digs it up. According to the stories, the only way to uproot the mandrake safely is to plug one’s ears with wax and tie a rope between a mandrake root and a dog’s tail. Back away from the root and throw the dog a treat, and the dog will lunge for it. The mandrake root will be uprooted by the dog’s sudden leap, and its shrieks will kill the hungry dog. The mandrake-hunter can then unplug their ears and continue the hunt in peace. However, many believe that it was European witches and sorcerers who made this legend popular, to protect the plant from the greedy hands of illicit vendors and common folk. Witches and sorcerers used the roots, fruits, and leaves of the plant not only as charms, but also in potions, ointments, oils, and other concoctions to secure the children, love, wealth, or power that their customers and friends desired. If ingested or transmitted through the skin, the alkaloids in the mandrake root worked their chemical magic, inducing excitation and hallucinations, as well as sleepiness—and sometimes, comas or death.
Later, near the end of the medieval period, Christianity became more and more dogmatic and sought to stamp out all opposition. Practices relying on traditional herbs and plants such as the mandrake became labeled demonic and dangerous, and rapidly faded from the popular sphere. Witches and sorcerers ended up with a bad reputation and when discovery could mean death, witches conducted their business in the strictest secrecy. In patches hidden deep in the woods, witches grew forbidden plants. In the same manner, many of the witches' herbs were poisonous, plants now recognized as containing potent drugs and toxins. Much of what little of the witches' lore survives, is found in the transcripts of their trials. These transcripts contain testimony extracted under torture, together with descriptions from the witch hunters' manuals, fanciful accounts that seem to owe more to the prosecutors’ lurid imaginations than to fact.
Facing this new approach from the church and the people, witches tried to endow these old plant servants with new powers and preferred to harvest mandrakes from beneath a gallows tree. The newly harvested root had to have special treatment – it had to be bathed in wine, clothed in silk and velvet, and fed every week, preferably with a sacramental wafer stolen during communion. Like other nightshades, the mandrake derives its reputation for magical power partly from its toxicity. This potent herb can kill the unwary, although it has also served as an important source of therapeutic medicines.
