Just sixteen and never seen a parsnip

[Anna]

Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) root is not only inedible, it is actually poisonous. Other common names are Love Apple and Devil's Apples, apparently: they refer to the fruits, not the root. 'Love Apple' must be an example of folk irony.

I always thought that Love Apple was the name used for Tomatoes when they were first introduced to Britain. From pomme d'amour (from the former belief in the tomato's aphrodisiacal powers) I've never heard it in relation to a mandrake.

[PhilipT]

I remember finding it interesting when I realised that most of our words for meat are based on the French (Norman) words rather than the older English words for the animals themselves, presumably for socio-economic reasons (only the French speaking upper classes were writing down recipes etc). Hence on the table we don't have pig, we have porc, no cow, only boeuf, no sheep, just mouton ...

It's a long time since I read it, but I seem to recall that that very point is made in the conversation between two serfs at the beginning of "Ivanhoe".

[umslopogaas]

The perils of plant common names. Apparently both tomatoes and mandrake have been described as Love Apples. The genera Mandragora and Lycopersicon are closely related, both are in the family Solanaceae. Tomatoes were brought over from the New World by the Spanish. When first described in Italy in 1544 they were considered a type of mandrake. When Gerard recorded the tomato in England in 1597 he called it a love apple.

Anyway, if you are out walking in south east Europe, see what looks like a wild tomato and fancy some for lunch, don’t, you may get a nasty stomach ache.

Incidentally, the family Solanaceae also contains henbane, thorn-apple, deadly nightshade, tobacco, aubergine, sweet and chilli peppers and potato. An interesting mixture of plants to befriend and plants to avoid like the plague.

For more information on mandrake, there's an entry under Mandragora in the RHS A-Z Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Sounds like a I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue "Uxbridge" definition:

A Tomato is a fruit often used as a vegetable in salads.
Whereas a Mandrake is a Forumite who keeps us up-to-date on who's snuffed it.

[Flosshilde]

The perils of plant common names. Apparently both tomatoes and mandrake have been described as Love Apples. The genera Mandragora and Lycopersicon are closely related, both are in the family Solanaceae. Tomatoes were brought over from the New World by the Spanish. When first described in Italy in 1544 they were considered a type of mandrake. When Gerard recorded the tomato in England in 1597 he called it a love apple.

Anyway, if you are out walking in south east Europe, see what looks like a wild tomato and fancy some for lunch, don’t, you may get a nasty stomach ache.

Incidentally, the family Solanaceae also contains henbane, thorn-apple, deadly nightshade, tobacco, aubergine, sweet and chilli peppers and potato. An interesting mixture of plants to befriend and plants to avoid like the plague.

For more information on mandrake, there's an entry under Mandragora in the RHS A-Z Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants.

The Mandrake root was supposed to closely resemble the human form - http://herbalwitchcraft.com/blog/wp-...ke_root_c2.jpg

The fruit of the potato plant (not the tuber, or root, which we eat) is poisonous.

[umslopogaas]

The fruits of the potato are poisonous ... yes, indeed they are, though garden and commercial cultivars seldom set fruit, they flower OK but the pollination seldom succeeds. I have seen a few in fruit and they are a bit similar to tomatoes.

And gardeners should not forget that if the soil washes away from potato tubers and they become exposed to the sun, they turn green and become full of some alkaloid (solanine?) which is very nasty.

I'm sure that was of those things my mother taught me. Never eat green potatoes.

[umslopogaas]

What, no replies? Not a botanist to be seen? Oh dreary prospect, nothing but music to be discussed for hours to come. I'm off to bed, talk again tomorrow if I've got anything useful to say. Fond as I am of music, I cant play or read it, so I'll have to leave intelligent discussion to others.

[Bryn]

Which is the vegetable which screams as it is pulled from the soil?

Or have we just been treated to multiple photos of that very thing?

Funnily enough he posts on these very boards:

[Sydney Grew]

We might also make mention of the notion indicated in the narrative of Genesis XXX, namely that the fruit when eaten by women assists them in falling pregnant. An odd way of putting the affair, that "fall" - as though it were involuntary! A rejection of responsibility - something for the psychologists and the mythologists.

[marthe]

The fruits of the potato are poisonous ... yes, indeed they are, though garden and commercial cultivars seldom set fruit, they flower OK but the pollination seldom succeeds. I have seen a few in fruit and they are a bit similar to tomatoes.

And gardeners should not forget that if the soil washes away from potato tubers and they become exposed to the sun, they turn green and become full of some alkaloid (solanine?) which is very nasty.

I agree with you on this one! We still have some potato farms around here, so I've seen both the tuber and the fruit! My mother also told us about never earing green potatoes... fried green tomatoes are another story (actually a movie)! Datura (aka Jimson Weed, Devil's Trumpet etc) is another one of these wonderful solanaceous plants. Datura seeds have been found along side rum bottles in the c18 deposits of a local archaeological excavation. Perhaps those colonial rum distillers and merchants were spiking their drink with an hallucinogenic and amnesiac substance.

[umslopogaas]

Phew, Marthe, much more to say here, but its nearly one in the morning in this neck of the woods (what a strange figure of speech is that? Do woods have cervical vertebrae, or do they indulge in heaving teenage intimacy? With a tree? I'd better find my axe, things are becoming sinister) and I need to go to bed. More tomorrow, if I can find the references.

To the plants, not distant indiscretions.

[marthe]

Phew, Marthe, much more to say here, but its nearly one in the morning in this neck of the woods (what a strange figure of speech is that? Do woods have cervical vertebrae, or do they indulge in heaving teenage intimacy? With a tree? I'd better find my axe, things are becoming sinister) and I need to go to bed. More tomorrow, if I can find the references.

To the plants, not distant indiscretions.

Ha ha: watch out for that axe Eugene (umslopogaas)! I look forward to the references.

[rauschwerk]

We might also make mention of the notion indicated in the narrative of Genesis XXX, namely that the fruit when eaten by women assists them in falling pregnant. An odd way of putting the affair, that "fall" - as though it were involuntary! A rejection of responsibility - something for the psychologists and the mythologists.

I beg to differ. Becoming pregnant is not entirely a matter of will: chance plays its part. Therefore we regard it as similar to the processes of falling ill and falling in love.

[Flosshilde]

We might also make mention of the notion indicated in the narrative of Genesis XXX, namely that the fruit when eaten by women assists them in falling pregnant. An odd way of putting the affair, that "fall" - as though it were involuntary! A rejection of responsibility - something for the psychologists and the mythologists.

Perhaps connected to the 'fall of man' & the expulsion from the Garden of Eden?

[Ferretfancy]

Perhaps connected to the 'fall of man' & the expulsion from the Garden of Eden?

Roll up for a ride on the guilt trip!