Mandrake

For book club this month, we are reading The Dovekeepers. I am really enjoying this book. Today, I read a part that talked about the mandrake plant and its supposed magical properties. Now, I have heard of the mandrake plant thanks to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, but I guess I just assumed that the mandrake was a made-up plant for the book. With J.K. Rowling, it's so hard to tell what's real and what's made up because all of it seems so real! Anyway, the mandrake is a real plant. I kind of feel stupid that I never knew this before. Interestingly enough, J.K. Rowling got the idea about mandrakes screaming and their magical properties from actual legend and magic books. In The Dovekeepers, it is used in a magical ritual as well.

So the mandrake, or mandragora (as Hermione points out), is real and poisonous and the root actually does resemble a small human (hence the myths surrounding the plant). The mandrake is also in the Bible in two places although it looks like there is some speculation about the translation of this and it could possibly really be ginseng since ginseng is known to help with fertility and the plant is mentioned in the story of Rachel and Leah when Rachel is trying to conceive with Jacob.

What I Learned: The mandrake is a real plant.