Solanaceae

Country of Origin: southern Europe
Habitat: stemless herbaceous perennial

Subfamily Browallioideae

Mandragora officinarum L.

Description: The mandrake, Mandragora officinarum, is a plant called by the Arabs luffâh, or beid el-jinn ("djinn's eggs"). The parsley-shaped root tuber is often branched. This root gives off at the surface of the ground a rosette of ovate-oblong to ovate, wrinkled, crisp, sinuate-dentate to entire leaves, 6 to 16 inches long, somewhat resembling those of the tobacco-plant. There spring from the neck a number of one-flowered nodding peduncles, bearing whitish-green flowers, nearly 2 inches broad, which produce globular, succulent, orange to red berries, resembling small tomatoes, which ripen in late spring. All parts of the mandrake plant are poisonous. The plant grows natively in southern and central Europe and in lands around the Mediterranean Sea, as well as on Corsica.

Uses: Mandrake has had many reputed medicinal qualities but most of them have been dispelled. Ingestion of sufficient quantities of Mandragora are often fatal.

Culture: It likes a light, deep soil, as the roots run far down. They will do poorly in a soil that is chalky or excessively gravelly. If the soil is too wet in winter, the roots will rot. It is propagated from seeds which should be sown in deep flats or, better, singly in pots. These should be kept well-watered and when they reach a good size they should be carefully set out at least 2 feet apart.

Poisonous Plant Parts - Not for Human Consumption
Mandrake posesses high content of the alkaloids scopolamine, mandragorin, and hyosciamine.

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