Mandrake/May-Apple
I wish I could call Podophyllum a true mandrake – the fabled plant of medieval myth and bestiaries from Pliny to Borges, which grew under gallow-poles, whose scream upon being uprooted was death to any that heard it, and which was a necessary compenent of countless potions and spells (the Wikipedia entry on Mandrake is a standout source for more cultural and botanical information). But as with many eponymous New World plants, the Crum’s greenery is not the same plant as its European namesake, the true mandrake Mandragora.
May-Apple does, however, have a its own qualities: it is ubiquitous (covering vast swathes in the Crum, though not invasive), it is poisonous (every part but the fruit), it is demure (by the time the flower appears it is hidden beneath the broad leaves that earn it the name ‘umbrella plant’).
Some claim that May-Apple has as many uses as true mandrake, both medical and magickal. It is produced commercially to treat warts.
Podophyllum peltatum
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say,
At some hours in the night spirits resort;--
Alack, alack, is it not like that I,
So early waking, what with loathsome smells,
And shrieks like mandrakes' torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad:--
O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
Environed with all these hideous fears?
And madly play with my forefather's joints?
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud?
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone,
As with a club, dash out my desperate brains?
Juliet:
Romeo and Juliet 4.3 (in the tomb)
Samuel B. Palmer
Biology Dept.
Swarthmore College
Biology Dept.
Swarthmore College
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
All of the Palmer Watercolors are courtesy of the Biology Department of Swarthmore College. A searchable database of the images is available through the Swarthmore library’s Triptych site.