Lots of Plants…
LESSON 1 : Beware the Plants that Feed.
⫸ PLANTS : Mandrakes, Valerian, Bubotuber, & Lovage
I entered the class of Herbology. I honestly didn’t really care about plants much but maybe I’d enjoy this class more than I originally thought. I guess I just had to give this class a shot.
There were 4 plants that we were going to be learning about in this lesson; Mandrakes, Valerian, Bubotuber, and Lovage. They were all different plants with different abilities so I guess that would be interesting to learn about…
First up, Mandrakes. According to the book, Mandrakes are green plants with long leaves but when pulled out of the soil, the root will be screaming which could kill or make someone pass out. It’s used for making potions to revive petrified victims but should always be handled with earmuffs AND that’s what we were going to do! We all gathered around the pots as we were given earmuffs that we put on. It was explained(and demonstrated) that we’d have to put the earmuffs on and pull out the mandrake then plop it back into another empty pot. Now it was our turn. Every student grabbed the mandrake and pulled it out of the pot- the earmuffs only muffled the sound but it was still loud. Everyone immediately dumped the damned plant into the empty pot and covered it back up with soil and that’s when the screeching finally stopped… even if it only out, screaming for a moment, that moment was hell.
Next up was the Valerian. Valerian was a tall plant with small white and pink flowers on it. The roots of the plant was a common ingredient in potions that was mainly used in sleeping draughts or calming potions because it has relaxing properties. Though, it’s not dangerous to touch so the dose must be precise while putting it into a potion. We all got our own Valerian too. The smell was inducing but we didn’t do much with it but trim the roots of it and grind it for a potion base.
Next up was Bubotuber which was a thick, dark green, slug-like plant that was filled with yellowish-green pus- hopefully we weren’t doing anything with that. The pus can burn skin but it could also be a powerful acne treatment if diluted correctly. Apparently it smelled horrible too… does this plant have any good traits? You can’t even touch the plant without wearing gloves. APPARENTLY, we were doing to do something with that plant too! We were going to be observing the plant with carefully extracting the pus from the plant with gloves and our given tools. It careful to not mess up because if you do you might get a minor burn or rash. And so we started and man, was the smell absolutely disgusting! I had no idea how this was even allowed, there’s no way the stench wouldn’t be the only thing I’d be messing for a while. Everyone was being really careful and precise as everyone used their tools to carefully extract the pus and surprisingly, no one got harmed. Guess no one wanted to get burned- it’s valid. I didn’t want to get burned either.
And finally, the Lovage- which seems way better than the Bubotuber. The plant has light green leaves and is used in potions to boost attractiveness or charm… apparently in the muggle world that’s a herb they use for cooking according to my mother. The side effects of this is attracting unwanted attention or even making someone overly confident. It’s also safe but if it’s misused it can lead to embarrassment. There didn’t really have any activity to do with this plant but we were able to smell and identify the leaves. So that was nice- especially after being tortured by a Bubotuber.
⫸ PLANTS : Mandrakes, Valerian, Bubotuber, & Lovage
I entered the class of Herbology. I honestly didn’t really care about plants much but maybe I’d enjoy this class more than I originally thought. I guess I just had to give this class a shot.
There were 4 plants that we were going to be learning about in this lesson; Mandrakes, Valerian, Bubotuber, and Lovage. They were all different plants with different abilities so I guess that would be interesting to learn about…
First up, Mandrakes. According to the book, Mandrakes are green plants with long leaves but when pulled out of the soil, the root will be screaming which could kill or make someone pass out. It’s used for making potions to revive petrified victims but should always be handled with earmuffs AND that’s what we were going to do! We all gathered around the pots as we were given earmuffs that we put on. It was explained(and demonstrated) that we’d have to put the earmuffs on and pull out the mandrake then plop it back into another empty pot. Now it was our turn. Every student grabbed the mandrake and pulled it out of the pot- the earmuffs only muffled the sound but it was still loud. Everyone immediately dumped the damned plant into the empty pot and covered it back up with soil and that’s when the screeching finally stopped… even if it only out, screaming for a moment, that moment was hell.
Next up was the Valerian. Valerian was a tall plant with small white and pink flowers on it. The roots of the plant was a common ingredient in potions that was mainly used in sleeping draughts or calming potions because it has relaxing properties. Though, it’s not dangerous to touch so the dose must be precise while putting it into a potion. We all got our own Valerian too. The smell was inducing but we didn’t do much with it but trim the roots of it and grind it for a potion base.
Next up was Bubotuber which was a thick, dark green, slug-like plant that was filled with yellowish-green pus- hopefully we weren’t doing anything with that. The pus can burn skin but it could also be a powerful acne treatment if diluted correctly. Apparently it smelled horrible too… does this plant have any good traits? You can’t even touch the plant without wearing gloves. APPARENTLY, we were doing to do something with that plant too! We were going to be observing the plant with carefully extracting the pus from the plant with gloves and our given tools. It careful to not mess up because if you do you might get a minor burn or rash. And so we started and man, was the smell absolutely disgusting! I had no idea how this was even allowed, there’s no way the stench wouldn’t be the only thing I’d be messing for a while. Everyone was being really careful and precise as everyone used their tools to carefully extract the pus and surprisingly, no one got harmed. Guess no one wanted to get burned- it’s valid. I didn’t want to get burned either.
And finally, the Lovage- which seems way better than the Bubotuber. The plant has light green leaves and is used in potions to boost attractiveness or charm… apparently in the muggle world that’s a herb they use for cooking according to my mother. The side effects of this is attracting unwanted attention or even making someone overly confident. It’s also safe but if it’s misused it can lead to embarrassment. There didn’t really have any activity to do with this plant but we were able to smell and identify the leaves. So that was nice- especially after being tortured by a Bubotuber.
Lillian Smog-horn