Mandrake preparation

[planthelper]

hi, mutant, automalis is less a cold climat plant than the "real" mandrake which grows/ grew naturaly in the alps, Mandragora officinalis.

nice work, mutant.

[mutant]

Mandragora officinalis also grows in the same places, in spring, they're not cold climate lovers either...

[planthelper]

Mandragora officinalis also grows in the same places, in spring, they're not cold climate lovers either...

 

Mandragora officinalis is a native to austria, believe me it's pretty cold there in winter!

[mindperformer]

I made an elixir from mandrake-root with 50%-alcohol

the root:

and two of my small babies (from seed), which are growing now:

i use a sandy soil and the germination was easy without cold-treatment. I only planted the seed in april outdoors.

[WoodDragon]

Cold stratification significantly increased the yields of M. officinarum and M. autumnalis for me. With twiddling I've got up to 95% germination. The turks definitely like cold stratification too. Remember, many plants grow in less than their optimal areas, so even though they might occur in areas with not very cold winters, it doesn't mean that they don't like the signal of winter to tell them when spring is coming.

It certainly won't hurt any of the mandrakes if you do it correctly.

[WoodDragon]

The other thing to remember is that much of the natural range of Mandragora has warmed over the last few centuries, such that areas that used to have regular snow don't have so much now. In many places they're still hanging on, but warming and other pressures are certainly reducing their numbers and their range. They won't immediately snuff out if the winter cold is less pronounced, but it is a pressure.

[tedzr]

Ah, this thread reminded me of a random documentary I watched a few years ago.. Hitler and the Occult.

Here's the bit on Mandrake root:

 

 

Oh the internet! Pretty fucking amazing, probably safer and more enlightening than the mandrake root!

I remember reading an account on erowid about some woman who vaginally applied flying ointment of which mandrake was an ingredient. She surely rode that broomstick to some kind of weird nirvana. I personally wouldn't fuck with any tropanes after Brug flower slowly ruined my linguistic memory over the course of about 6 months (slowly rebuilding over the course of about 2 years). Also, I wouldn't eat those Benadryl motion sickness tablets either, they can cause life-threatening renal failure. Not to mention gummy psychological disorders. As to my knowledge, there's not a great deal of info publicly available info about ingesting mandrake though I think it has other magical purposes that are probably a little more common (which should probably tell your something).

P.S. your friend might be a bit of a nut case. peace!

Edited August 27, 2012 by tedzr

[mindperformer]

I know it should be cold stratificated but a few cool nights outside in april made the same thing on my balcony and I got very good results either.

Mandrake had a myriad of uses since millenia. Even the old egyptians used it and it could be one of the oldest hallucinogens. It was also used for anesthesia millenia ago.

Now it is used as tincture against warts in medicine.

You're right, it was also an ingredient in magic (flying) salves from witches (our european shamans).

To the warm climate: The mandrake can also be found in north-africa

Edited August 27, 2012 by mindperformer

[mindperformer]

Mandrake in old egypt:

http://www.google.at/imgres?q=mandragora+egypt&um=1&hl=de&biw=1527&bih=823&tbm=isch&tbnid=ogpjuVAIdLrkAM:&imgrefurl=http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/3581/Tile_Fragment_with_Mandragora_Fruit_and_Leaves&imgurl=http://cdn2.brooklynmuseum.org/images/opencollection/objects/size3/52.148.2_SL1.jpg&w=768&h=592&ei=yLQ7UI3qG8TKtAbmsoHIBQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=665&vpy=154&dur=3571&hovh=198&hovw=257&tx=135&ty=102&sig=118135100028376239608&page=1&tbnh=135&tbnw=174&start=0&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0,i:78

http://www.google.at/imgres?q=mandragora+egypt&um=1&hl=de&biw=1527&bih=823&tbm=isch&tbnid=kKD9IBf9IM5bsM:&imgrefurl=http://www.ganymed.eu/History.en.php&imgurl=http://www.ganymed.eu/img/geschichte/semenchkare.jpg&w=500&h=574&ei=yLQ7UI3qG8TKtAbmsoHIBQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=309&sig=118135100028376239608&page=1&tbnh=148&tbnw=130&start=0&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:72&tx=76&ty=84

Mandragora in Cyprus:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/xenoflor/5528609281/

and in Marocco:

http://www.visoflora.com/photos-nature/mandragora-automnalis-l.html?xtref=http://www.google.at/imgres?q=mandragora+maroc$um=1$hl=de$biw=1527$bih=823$tbm=isch$tbnid=W6XnsbloyhTOaM:$imgrefurl=http://www.visoflora.com/photos-nature/mandragora-automnalis-l.html$imgurl=http://www.visoflora.com/images/original/mandragora-automnalis-l-visoflora-68574.jpg$w=800$h=600$ei=hbU7UJWODMrctAb_8YG4Dg$zoom=1$iact=hc$vpx=681$vpy=454$dur=4279$hovh=194$hovw=260$tx=161$ty=86$sig=118135100028376239608$page=1$tbnh=137$tbnw=181$start=0$ndsp=29$ved=1t:429,r:25,s:0,i:147

[chronic]

And in Germany. Mandragora caulescens chinghaiensis (QIE shen). Home culture. Left.

And in natural habitat. Right. (This picture is not mine)

[mindperformer]

It is possible that the genus Mandragora has its origins in the new world:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105579031000374X

[mutant]

this thread is getting awesome!

thanks a lot wooddragon!

[mindperformer]

I think there are more heat-tolerable Mandragora off.- strains (not real variations) in Northern Africa. It is possible that they don't need any cold stratification.

[WoodDragon]

It's important to remember that even in Africa and the Middle East night and winter temperatures can and do drop very low, and that freezing temperatures are not rare. In fact, the east Mediterranean region - a part of Mandragora's range - commonly used to experience winter snow. Many other parts of the genus's range routinely experiences deep snow, even in today's warmed world.

Mandrakes can germinate without cold stratification, but giving them a properly-planned chill will increase the germination rate, often dramatically.

That's the bottom line.

Edited August 31, 2012 by WoodDragon

[mindperformer]

Temperature over the year in Egypt:

http://deluxetravele...r-in-egypt.html

Don't get me wrong, I agree that cold stratification increases the germination rate, but maybe this depends also on where the strain comes from...

A few cold nights in April can do the same thing.

Edited August 31, 2012 by mindperformer

[WoodDragon]

Mindperformer.

That link describes average maximum daily temperature in Hurghada, which doesn't really get to the point of cold (= winter signal) stratification.

Probably more relevant to this discussion is this commentary about Egyptian climate:

In deserts the temperature vary to a great degree, especially in summer; they may range from 7 °C (44.6 °F) at night, to 40 °C (104.0 °F) during the day. While the winter temperatures in deserts do not fluctuate as wildly, they can be as low as 0 °C (32 °F) at night, and as high as 18 °C (64.4 °F) during the day.

If you read some of the mandrake literature you'll find that there is frequent comment on its association with regions that have hot, dry summers and cold winters. This doesn't necessarily mean snow, and indeed I do dry stratification with just a few days of wet stratification at the end. But boy, do they wake up if you do chill them properly before planting.

Perhaps the African populations are less cold-activated, but given the patchy occurence of Mandragora officinarum in Africa I'm inclined to suspect that it's more of a relic there than a happy camper - the advantage probably comes once any lucky seeds germinate and they don't have to worry too much about the roots damping off, as mandrakes are not a fan of too much water.

Speaking of distribution, if anyone knows of a better range map than the one below, I'd be most interested.

.

[whitewind]

Because even Wikipedia is sometimes subject to random changes:

Extract from Chapter XVI, Witchcraft and Spells: Transcendental Magic its Doctrine and Ritual by Eliphas Levi. A Complete Translation of Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie by Arthur Edward Waite. 1896

... we will add a few words about mandragores (mandrakes) and kandroids, which several writers on magic confound with the waxen image; serving the purposes of bewitchment. The natural mandragore is a filamentous root which, more or less, presents as a whole either the figure of a man, or that of the virile members. It is slightly narcotic, and an aphrodisiacal virtue was ascribed to it by the ancients, who represented it as being sought by Thessalian sorcerers for the composition of philtres. Is this root the umbilical vestige of our terrestrial origin ? We dare not seriously affirm it, but all the same it is certain that man came out of the slime of the earth, and his first appearance must have been in the form of a rough sketch. The analogies of nature make this notion necessarily admissible, at least as a possibility. The first men were, in this case, a family of gigantic, sensitive mandragores, animated by the sun, who rooted themselves up from the earth ; this assumption not only does not exclude, but, on the contrary, positively supposes, creative will and the providential co-operation of a first cause, which we have reason to call God. Some alchemists, impressed by this idea, speculated on the culture of the mandragore, and experimented in the artificial reproduction of a soil sufficiently fruitful and a sun sufficiently active to humanise the said root, and thus create men without the concurrence of the female. Others, who regarded humanity as the synthesis of animals, despaired about vitalising the mandragore, but they crossed monstrous pairs and projected human seed into animal earth, only for the production of shameful crimes and barren deformities. The third method of making the android was by galvanic machinery. One of these almost intelligent automata was attributed to Albertus Magnus, and it is said that Thomas Aquinas destroyed it with one blow from a stick because he was perplexed by its answers. This story is an allegory; the android was primitive scholasticism, which was broken by the Summa of St Thomas, the daring innovator who first substituted the absolute law of reason for arbitrary divinity, by formulating that axiom which we cannot repeat too often, since it comes from such a master: " A thing is not just because God wills it, but God wills it because it is just. " The real and serious android of the ancients was a secret which they kept hidden from all eyes, and Mesmer was the first who dared to divulge it; it was the extension of the will of the magus into another body, organised and served by an elementary spirit; in more modern and intelligible terms, it was a magnetic subject.

Why can't we write like this anymore?

[mindperformer]

You are right, the distribution in northern africa is very limited. As we can see in the distribution-picture, it grows in Israel, which was part of ancient egypt for some time...

The appearance in northern marocco is also very limited.

@whitewind: thanks for very interesting article about the magic of mandrake.

The german name Alraune for Mandragora is derived from the germanic word Alruna (Allwissende), which means "the All-knowing".

Edited September 1, 2012 by mindperformer

[mutant]

Speaking of distribution, if anyone knows of a better range map than the one below, I'd be most interested.

I got a friend who knows little of botany and all, but has traveled a lot and claims mandrake is common in many greek islands of aegean sea. I will be visiting in automn, so I will probably have some shots from plants in the habitat.

That map is very low resolution. I cant see details about greece, but sure, I can find more info on this for my area. not exactly what you asked, but... also I got a friend who was supposed to write a monograph on mandrake.

more.. in the future...

[mindperformer]

you are from greece? I love greece and was 6 times there on different islands with friends and since I was 3 years (with my parents). I never saw mandrake there, but I always was in summer and as a child I din't know about it, so this means nothing ;-)

[mutant]

yep. got to get to this island this automn to see and photograph them in habitat, hope I make it!

[Rizla]

That was great prose in that old text, great thread. Anybody growing M. tucomanica? I've had a plant for some 4 years now. It's just coming back to life

in the northern hemisphere fall, after going dormant like it always does. I need to put it in the ground; it's well past time. Fairly bulletproof in the

Sonoran desert, for sure.

[mindperformer]

M. turkomanica could be the most heat tolerable species, so in the Sonoran desert this is perfect to grow. Do you have photos from your plants?

[Francois le Danque]

I made an elixir from mandrake-root with 50%-alcohol

 

any more details on this? very fascinating. i am interested to see how you used it and what effects this produced. i have seen 'mandrake oil' sold in witchcraft stores, i wonder if it is real. they advise dobbing it on your third eye as an aid to meditation.

[mindperformer]

I'm always sceptical in witchcraft stores here in europe...

I've put the root, fresh, in the 50%-alcohol (96% with water) and let it stand for a few months. I only tried it in very low doses, which were sedative, analgesic and got me wonderful dreams, and leave me somehow enchanted.

the elixir:

Edited September 3, 2012 by mindperformer