Year 32
Herbology
Week Three
Week Four
Week Five
Week Six & Week Seven
Week Eight
Week One
Ah, welcome back all! I swear, that summer went by a lot quicker than it should have. I hope you all got a nice break, but alas, back to lessons once more!
Herbology is such an interesting and underrated subject, in my opinion. You stand to learn about plants that are involved in quite a few of your daily lives. We’ll be learning about plants that you use in Potions class as ingredients, plants that are used in the Hospital Wing after you’ve gotten injured in quidditch or dueling or whatever other crazy antics you kids get involved with nowadays, plants that you can even eat! With all of that said, it’s time to start thinking of some plants that you’re interested in.
HOMEWORK
What’s one plant that you come across in your daily life? Give me two or three sentences on what it is and how you use it. (10 points)
Week Two
So, today we’re going to talk about succulents. What is a succulent, what isn’t a succulent, where they’re found, and on and on.
A succulent is generally defined as any plant that has a thicker than average skin, in order to store more water than might be necessary for a typical plant. This is because succulents are often found in dry, nearly desert like climates where water storage is necessary for survival. This definition would include cacti, but it depends on who you’re talking to! A horticulturist (someone who works with plants in art and science ways) would exclude cacti from the definition of succulents. There are many other definitions that exclude various types of plants and include others, depending on different conditions, so if you run across other information, that’s likely why!
HOMEWORK
Find a specific succulent that you enjoy (there are succulents in over 60 different plant families, so there must be one!) and give a description of it to see if matches the definition I gave you. (15 points)
Welcome once again! Let’s get down to it, no time to waste today. Before you are a couple of potted plants, please be careful not to harm them! We’re working with dittany today, and it would be a shame to waste such wonderful plants.
Dittany is one of the most useful plants for healing wounds. One can simply chew a few leaves of it, and shallow, non-serious cuts and scrapes will heal without further help, or one can use the essence of dittany, a liquefied version of the plant. That will heal larger cuts and wounds, and it creates a layer of skin over the area to protect it as well. The cut won’t look good as new, exactly, but it will close it and prevent further injury from happening. It might be a smart idea to have some dittany on hand in case of emergency!
HOMEWORK (20 points)
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Describe a situation where you might use dittany to help yourself or someone else. (2-3 sentences)
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Find one potion (essence of dittany does not count) that dittany is used in. (the internet would be a great place to start…)
Almost break time! But first, some good, dedicated effort for lessons! :P
Dahlias are, in my opinion, a beautiful flower with an interesting bit of information behind them. They are native to Mexico (and were declared their national flower in 1963), and there are 42 different species of the flower. It is also related to the sunflower and the daisy, and can display a range of colors in the flowers except blue.
The reason that the dahlia has such a wide range of species is because it has 8 chromosomes that all can express different traits/colors/heights/etc. It is typical for plants to only have 2 of these chromosomes. Some types of these flowers were and still are used for food and drink. Aztecs used to eat them regularly, and today certain types of the flowers are roasted and used to flavor a drink, providing a mocha taste. When used in food or drink, the tubers of the plants are cooked and incorporated, and not the petals or stems.
HOMEWORK (15 points)
Find one species of dahlia that you like, and give a description of it. Include any relevant info you find, if there is any about it. If you find no information on your specific flower, find one more use for dahlias in general (a little internet hunting is required).
Welcome! Back at it with a rather fun lesson today, I think. Devil's Snare! We don't have any in the classroom today, because it is so highly dangerous and not at all because I am banned from having it in on school grounds. So, let's get going!
Devil's Snare is a plant made of vines that can, and very often will, reach out and find people or things to grab and strangle. The plant seems to use resistance to the vines to grab tighter, and if you find yourself unable to get untangled from Devil's Snare, I can say with complete certainty that the outcome is not pleasant. Luckily, it is easy to get out of the plant's grip, if you know two fundamental things about Devil's Snare; first, it is extremely adverse to light, and second, it releases its grip when it no longer senses movement. The plant seems to use a lack of movement as a sign that its victim has died, and so if you make yourself very still and relaxed, the plant will release you. As for light, the plant only grows in dark areas (which, incidentally, is another reason we can't have the plant in the greenhouse), so if you cast a flame-based spell or a light-based spell, it will likely stop moving or even recede.
The plant is almost exclusively used in aggressive ways. It is useful in guarding areas, attacking large groups of enemies, and it has even been used, unfortunately, in assassination. This makes it fairly unique amongst the plants that we study in Herbology. If there is a plant that is used to harm others, it is one that typically can poison someone, or one that can be used in a potion that does harm. Devil's Snare is a plant that attacks people directly, of its own will, which is an interesting concept to think about.
HOMEWORK (20 points)
1. Write about two properties of Devil's Snare that you find interesting.
2. If you had the chance to safely use this plant in a potion, salve, paste, etc. what would you do with it? What effect would your creation have?
Hello! This next lesson needs a bit of an explanation. It will span weeks six and seven, and be worth as many points as two lessons, so it is crucial that you complete (or at least attempt!) this project. We’ll be studying Bowtruckles for the first portion, and then continue on with how to overcome them using the Severing Charm.
Firstly, the Bowtruckle is an interesting, yet elusive creature. It easily blends into trees and foliage, because it is flat and its skin looks very similar to bark. It has two extremely sharp fingers on each hand and eats mainly insects that dwell in the trees, which helps keep the tree healthy and thriving. These creatures are mainly found across Europe, and in trees that are used in wand making. To say that they are defensive over their tree and themselves is an understatement. Any potential threat to the tree, even taking so much as a leaf, will prompt an attack. Clearly, this creates problems for anyone wanting to use the tree for wands or other purposes. In these situations, the Bowtruckle can be offered wood lice or fairy eggs to get past them long enough to gather enough of the tree to use.
Now, some of you may be asking me why we are even studying Bowtruckles, seeing as they are a creature and not a plant. My answer is that they are so closely tied to trees that are important in our everyday lives, trees that are involved in our wands and our ability to use magic, that learning about the wood-like creature that inhabits it is just as important as knowing about the trees themselves. It would be quite unfortunate for someone to seek out a tree and be unaware of Bowtruckles, and get attacked by them.
So, say you are a person who has gone in search of one of these trees that Bowtruckles inhabit. And, say you had a busy morning and you forgot to pack wood lice in your bag. Instead of being attacked trying to get some tree bark, you have another option. The severing charm can be used to get rid of the Bowtruckles, if you know how to cast and aim it properly. This charm is very important to have in your skill set, but it is also very dangerous and deadly if used in improperly trained hands. So, we’ll all be learning (or maybe re-learning) how to cast the severing charm!
The incantation for this spell is Diffindo. Its main purpose is to very cleanly separate an object in two, whether the object be cloth, rock, wood, etc. To cast the spell, you should make a V-shape, and at the top of the V, drop and swish the wand a bit in a flourish. It may take some practice, but it will come naturally after a while. When we use this against a Bowtruckle, we simply aim at it and cast, guiding the spell to split the creature in two. It is a gruesome fate for the creature, and I suggest you only use this method in case of dire emergency. Bowtruckles are not inherently violent, and will not attack you unless they perceive a threat to their tree or themselves.
HOMEWORK
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Write a journal entry about observing a Bowtruckle that you find in the Forbidden Forest. These creatures can be hard to find, and hard to keep track of, so your entry should reflect that! Write about the way it acts towards the tree, towards the other creatures in and around the tree, what it looks like and how it attacks, etc. 20 points
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Practice using the Severing charm against the wooden blocks outside the Greenhouses. Write your experience with the charm in a story format. Should be a paragraph in length at the least, meaning 4-5 quality sentences. 20 points