Herbarium of the Bizarre

Mandrake, Part 1

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I accidentally made my first two-parter! Oops? Mandrake is just a really interesting plant, and there was a lot I wanted to tell you about it. In part one, I’ll cover what a Mandrake is, why this plant was so important to the ancient world, and why it’s one of my “romantic” plants for February.


Music by James Milor from Pixabay


Information provided by:

  1. The rise and fall of mandrake in medicine by Guillermo Benítez, et al. (2023) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2022.115874
  2. https://youtu.be/xSdD-mVsjRg?si=sfyNighAK-K3ZmPb
  3. Myths and mandrakes by Anthony John Carter (2003) https://doi.org/10.1258%2Fjrsm.96.3.144
  4. https://www.europeana.eu/en/exhibitions/magical-mystical-and-medicinal/mandrake
  5. https://www.wired.com/2014/06/fantastically-wrong-mandrake/
  6. https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/ethnobotany/Mind_and_Spirit/mandrake.shtml
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    Herbarium of the BizarreBy Meredith Hemphill