Harry Potter Herbology 101

Plants and herbs play a big part in the magic of Harry Potter. The students of Hogwarts encounter plants that scream, pulsate, spew poison, and most importantly, become ingredients in magic potions. What's more is that many of those fantastic plants are based on real plants, or at least real legends of plants. Garden Design gives us the lowdown on the fictional and the actual botanical specimens mentioned in the series. For example, in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, we meet a plant that grabs people with its tendrils, intending to eat them!
Carnivorous trees have popped up now and again in various superstitious texts, including one outrageous tall tale invented by a 19th-century German explorer named Carl Liche who claimed to have seen an eight-foot-tall plant with long hairy tendrils pick up a woman—supposedly belonging to what was later deemed a fictional Malagasy tribe—and devour her whole. Liche's story, which was written up as a non-fiction travel account in the South Australian Register, was later found to be completely false.

An entire list of plants from the series are examined in this article. Link -Thanks, Claire!

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