The Complete Idiot's Guide to the World of Harry Potter (30 page)

Asphodel is a member of the
Ashodeline
genus of the lily family. It looks like a lily, with white or yellow flowers and narrow green leaves.

Asphodel has long been known as the flower of death; in fact, it is thought to be the flower that the dead like the most! For this reason, asphodel used to be planted in and around tombs.

In the wizarding world, asphodel is used in the Draught of Living Death.

Belladonna
(Atropa belladonna)
goes by several names, most of which have “deadly” or “devil” in the title. It is a highly poisonous plant of the nightshade family (which also includes tobacco, red peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and petunias), with purple or red flowers and black berries.

The
Atropa
portion of its botanical name is derived from Atropos, one of the Greek Fates. The
belladonna
portion is translated as “beautiful woman.” Confused? Venetian women once used belladonna to dilate their pupils, which was supposed to make them more beautiful. We can be grateful that some of history’s great beauty secrets lasted only a generation or two.

Long used as a way to poison unsuspecting rivals, in tiny amounts it has also been used to combat migraines, lower heart rate, and relax bronchial and urinary muscles.

Belladonna is used so often in wizarding potions that it is part of the potion-making kit purchased by all Hogwarts Potions students.

The daisy
(Chrysanthemum leucanthemum)
is so common, with its white flowers and yellow center, that it is sometimes considered a weed among Muggles. Daisy roots, however, are used in the wizarding world to make a Shrinking Solution, which makes some sense, because an old wives’ tale says that daisy roots, boiled in milk and fed to a farm animal, can stop the animal from growing too large.

Fluxweed
(Isanthus brachiatus)
is also called false pennyroyal and is a member of the mint family.

A key ingredient in wizard Polyjuice Potion (which makes one wizard look like another for a brief period of time), fluxweed is commonly used in the wizarding world. To be useful in that particular potion, however, the fluxweed must be harvested during a full moon.

Note that “flux,” from the Latin
fluxus,
means flow. In electronics design and manufacturing, flux is a product that makes solder flow better across circuit boards. In physics, flux is the rate of flow of energy across a surface. In the movie
Back to the Future,
Doc Brown tells Marty that his flux capacitor makes time travel possible.

Ginger (
Zingiber officinale
) is an herb that’s used both as a spice and as a medicinal plant. It is known to calm the digestive system, which is why ginger tea and ginger ale are given to people with upset stomachs.

In the wizarding world, ginger must have an effect on the brain as well; wizards use ginger roots to make a Wit-Sharpening Potion.

Hellebore—also called Christherb because it flowers near Christmas— is unusual in that it is from both the
Helleborus
genus of the buttercup family (as is aconite) and the
Veratrum
genus of the lily family (as is asphodel). It’s highly poisonous, either killing or causing severe burning to the skin if handled and to the intestines if ingested. Tiny amounts, however, can stimulate the heart, and people have historically blessed their farm animals with hellebore.

The name is said to originate from the Greek for “plant eaten by fawns.” Apparently, it’s not poisonous to deer. It may also come from the Greek
elein,
meaning “to injure,” and
bora,
meaning food—injurious food, which makes sense given how poisonous the substance is.

In the wizarding world, the syrup from the hellebore plant is used in the Draught of Peace.

Knotgrass is from the
Polygonum
genus of the buckwheat family and is a common weed or grass with thin stems and leaves and small flowers. Like daisy roots boiled in milk, knotgrass is thought to limit the growth of animals. Shakespeare mentions knotgrass in
A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In the wizarding world, knotgrass is used in Polyjuice Potion and is likely how the potion gets its name (from the botanical name
Polygonum
).

This plant (botanical name,
Levisticum officianle
) is a member of the umbel family (which is in the same family as celery and parsley). It has long been a home remedy, often in the form of a medicinal tea.

In the wizarding world, lovage is used to make a Confusing and Befuddlement Draught.

The mallow is a family of plants with large flowers that bloom on a large stalk or tube; hollyhock is a good example. Mallowsweet is not a recognized variety in the Muggle world, but would likely come from that same family, perhaps as a sweet-tasting variety. In the wizarding world, centaurs burn mallowsweet and sage, and receive divine wisdom from the shapes of the flames and smoke.

The mandrake (
Mandragora officinarum
) is a member of the nightshade family; a small, round, purple plant that’s essential to potion-making, especially antidotes. This plant has historically been thought to have magical qualities, because its roots look somewhat human-like.

In the wizarding world, one of its properties is that it can return a person to his or her human state—if a curse or transfiguration-gone-wrong has trapped the person in a nonhuman body or if the person has been petrified. Wear earplugs or earmuffs, however, when repotting mandrakes (which must be done three times in the first nine months), because the “root” of a mandrake looks like a tiny baby and, when the plant is fully grown, the root makes a wailing cry that is fatal to the listener.

Nettle is from the
Urtica
genus of the nettle family, and is a stingy, spiny, thorny plant. The plant is so bothersome that the word “nettle” has come to mean “to irritate.” Nettle is, however, used in teas and soups to help with digestive disorders.

One of the most interesting mentions of nettle in Biblical times was in the Old Testament during the calamity of Job (pronounced johb). During this dismal time in Job’s life, his opponents hid behind nettles, and the thorns served as protection for them, rather than harming them. Poor Job. Nothing ever seemed to go his way.

In the wizarding world, nettle is used as a cure for boils. But this isn’t so unusual. In the Muggle world, especially in Britain, drinking nettle tea is used as a treatment for boils. The herb called blind nettle (which is actually a mint, not a nettle) has also traditionally been used to treat boils.

Pomegranate (
Punica granatum
) is a bright-red fruit borne on a small tree. Inside, the fruit is full of seeds from which pomegranate juice is made. The juice is prized for its high potassium content, which makes pure pomegranate juice expensive when compared to other fruit juices. The fruit was historically used as a red dye and in tanning leather, has been used medicinally, and is a symbol of fertility. In the Bible, Solomon’s temple contained many pomegranate carvings.

Pomegranate juice is used in the wizarding world, but be careful when making a Strengthening Solution, because your bottle of pomegranate juice may be carelessly mistaken for the correct ingredient, salamander blood.

Sage is from the
Salvia
genus of the mint family that is used for decoration and for seasoning foods, especially chicken, meats, cheeses, and so on. It is derived from the Latin
salvus,
which means “safe.”

“Safe” sage has many healing powers. Most recently, sage has been shown to help asthmatics, who breathe it in during attacks.

In the wizarding world, centaurs mix sage with mallowsweet in divination.

Scurvy-grass (
Cochlearia officianlis;
also called scurvy weed) is a northern plant from the crucifer family that was traditionally used to treat scurvy, a disease caused by a deficiency of Vitamin C and resulting in anemia, weak bones, and other nasty symptoms. Scurvy was common among those traveling long distances by ship, when no fresh fruits and vegetables were available. Today, with the advent of vitamins, scurvy has mostly disappeared. However, describing scurvy is still how fifth-grade teachers get you to eat oranges and grapefruit.

In the wizarding world, scurvy-grass is used to make Confusing and Befuddlement Draughts.

Sneezewort is a kind of yarrow (
Achillea ptarmica
), which causes sneezing in many people. (Can you say, highly allergenic?) Keep in mind that “wort” simply means “plant” or “herb,” so a sneezewort is a plant that relates to sneezing.

Sneezewort, along with lovage and scurvy-grass, is used in the wizarding world to make Confusing and Befuddlement Draughts.

Valerian (
Aleriana officinalis
) is derived from the Latin
valere,
meaning “to be healthy.” It is also known as garden heliptrope and tobacco root and has for centuries been used as a sleep aid. In fact, valerian tablets and teas are commonly sold as an herbal remedy for inducing sleep.

In the wizarding world, valerian is used in the Draught of Living Death, which is appropriate, given valerian’s well-known soporific qualities.

Wormwood (
Artemisia judaica
) is a shrub in the aster family, the oil of which was used to make absinthe, a liqueur that is now illegal in some countries because of its toxicity.

Found in Palestine, the wormwood plant appears often in the Bible, serving as a metaphor for sadness in several portions of the Old Testament. The New Testament references the plant in conjunction with God’s punishment of the Israelites.

In the wizarding world, wormwood is used in the Draught of Living Death, perhaps because although it is lethal in large quantities, it can be taken in small amounts.

Wormwood is also the name of the junior tempter in C.S. Lewis’s
The Screwtape Letters.
In the book, Wormwood’s Uncle Screwtape writes him a series of letters, in which he attempts to teach Wormwood how to become a professional devil, winning human hearts to “Our Father Below.” The name is meant to convey a disgusting, belly-crawling creature.

A few plants and herbs grow only in the wizarding world—no such varieties exist in Muggle gardens, plant stores, or herb shops. The following sections shed light on this unusual wizard-only vegetation.

Abyssinian Shrivelfigs grow as a stalk that must be pruned from time to time. The figs themselves are skinned and used in a Shrinking Solution.

Figs are, however, historically significant. Greek goddess Demeter was supposed to have introduced figs to humans (on the Roman side, the god Bacchus is given responsibility for the introduction of the fig), and the Greeks continued to think highly of this fruit—it was the primary training food of the first Olympians. After all, who needs meat and potatoes when you have figs?

Homer’s
Iliad
and
Odyssey
both mention figs. Figs are also the most oft-mentioned fruit in the Bible. Recently, anthropologists discovered that figs are the oldest cultivated crop known to man, when several petrified figs were found in the Jordan Valley and evaluated for their age.

Abyssinia is an older name for the country of Ethiopia but, ironically, Ethiopia’s main crops are coffee and grains, not figs. (Most of the world’s figs are grown in California and the Mediterranean.) And figs are a shrivelly sort of fruit, at least when they’re dried—dried figs are the most common form. Their shriveled skin actually looks a bit like a walnut’s shell, except that a fig is soft to the touch, not hard like a walnut.

Today, figs are enjoyed primarily in gourmet recipes and, of course, in Fig Newtons.