On Botany Vol 1
From Atlantic Roleplay Wiki
Title: On Botany Vol 1.
Author: Lady Undine
When e'er a Sosarian takes stride through the narrow ways of Sosaria, they will notice even more the reagents and plants that grow abundant in the fields, forests, and meadows, and even the aids of a non-regeant sort.
Section One
-Botanical Reagents-
1. Nightshade; Also known under the scientific family title of Solanaceae. The Solanaceae is a family of flowering and blossoming plants. Many of these are edible and many are poisonous.
The name of the Solanaceae family comes from the Latin term Solanum which, translated, represents the english term "The nightshade plant". It has been suggested that alternately, it comes from the Latin Verb Solari which means "to soothe". Though many of the plants in the family have healing properties, some of them are very venomous, such as the deadly Belladonna nightshade, one of the most deadly.
Mandrake Root: Mandrake is a common term for botanicals of the plant genus Mandragora belonging to the nightshade's family.
Because mandrake contains hallucinogenic tropane alkaloids such as hyoscyamine and the roots sometimes contain bifurcations causing them to resemble human beings, their roots have been used in magic rituals, today also in neopagan religions such as Wicca and Germanic revivalism religions such as Odinism.
The mandrake is a parsley-shaped root that is often branched. This 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 in length.
3. Ginseng- An herb species stemming from the Panax family, a family consisting of 11 species of slow-growing perennial plants with fleshy roots. It is used in healing, scent therapy and tea and beverages.
4.Garlic: Allium satium L., otherwise known as garlic is a species of the onion fafmillyt Alliaceae. It has been used throughout history for consumption in foods, as a medine, or even placed on a door or around one's neck to protect against invading evil spirits and vampires.
The leaves are used while still tender to add flavoring to some dishes. It grows wild and in captivity, and the wild varieties are thought to descend from the wild ancient varieties called Allium longicuspis which grwos wild in Southwestern Asia.
Section Two
-Asthetic Botanicals-
1. Roses: Roses are flowering shrubs of the genus Rosa. They are used mainly for asthetic purposes.
They are either prickly shrubs or climbers (similar to vines) for the most part, and can reach up to 20 metres climbing over other plants. The name originates from the Latin rosa, borrowed through Oscan from colonial Greek in sothourn Italy: rhodon (Aeolic form : Wrodon), from Arramaic Wurrda from Assyrian wurtinnu from old Iranian Warda.
Rose hips asre sometimes eaten for Vitamin C content. They are also pressed and filtered to make syrup, and can also be made into teas, jams, jellies, ointments, marmalades, rose water, and even astringents.
2. Bulrushes: also known as Typha, Bulrushes are tall rush-like wetland plants.
3. Ferns: A fern is any one of a group of about 20,000 species of plants classified in the phylum or division Pteridophyta, also known as Filicophyta.
The group is also referred to as Polypodiophyta, or Polypodiopsida when treated as a subdivision of tracheophyta (vascular plants). The study of ferns and other pteridophytes is called pteridology, and one who studies ferns and other pteridophytes is called a pteridologist. The term "pteridophyte" has traditionally been used to describe all seedless vascular plants, making it synonymous with "ferns and fern allies". This can be confusing since members of the fern phylum Pteridophyta are also sometimes referred to as pteridophytes.
4. Ponytail Palm: Beaucarnea recurvata (often called the ponytail palm in English, even though it is not a true palm) is a species of Beaucarnea often grown as a houseplant in temperate latitudes. Successful cultivation requires winter minimum temperatures of above 10 °C, rising to around 30 °C in summer.
Beaucarnea recurvata needs full sun to light shade, with a well drained soil mix. A soil mix consisting of 2 parts loam to 1 part peat moss to 2 parts sand has been used successfully. To this mix, small gravel may be added to ensure good drainage. In a container, plants are very slow growing and very drought tolerant. Plants can be watered every three weeks during the growing season and fertilized once during this period. During the winter months, the plants should be watered only enough to keep the foliage from wilting (this usually equates to 1 dose of water during the winter).
Over-watering is the single most frequent cause of failure when growing Beaucarnea. The ponytail palm is a very slow growing and very drought tolerant. Plants can be watered every three weeks during the growing season and fertilized once during this period. During the winter months, the plants should be watered only enough to keep the foliage from wilting (this usually equates to 1 dose of water during the winter).
Over-watering is the single most frequent cause of failure when growing Beaucarnea. The ponytail palm is a very slow growing tree. If you break off one of the branch "crowns", new growth will appear in about a month.
5. Snake Plant: Sansevieria trifasciata is a species of Sansevieria, native to tropical west Africa from Nigeria east to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is commonly called the snake plant, because of the shape of its leaves, or mother-in-law's tongue because of their sharpness.
It is an evergreen herbaceous perennial plant forming dense stands, spreading by way of its creeping rhizome, which is sometimes above ground, sometimes underground.
Its stiff leaves grow vertically from a basal rosette. Mature leaves are dark green with light gray-green cross-banding and usually range between 70–90 cm in length and 5–6 cm in width. 6. Century Plant: The Century Plant or Maguey (Agave americana) is an agave originally from Mexico but cultivated worldwide.
It has a spreading rosette (about 4 m wide) of gray-green leaves up to 2 meters (6 ft.) long, each with a spiny margin and a heavy spike at the tip. Its common name derives from its habit of only occasionally flowering, but when it does, the spike with a cyme of big yellow flowers, may reach up to 8 meters (25 ft.) in height. The plant dies after flowering, but produces suckers or adventitious shoots from the base, which continue its growth. The average life-span is around 25 years.