POMONA SPROUT, THE NATURAL POWER OF MANDRAKES

Professor Pomona Sprout

Today, The Stones & The Grandma have attended an exciting new class. They have met Professor Pomona Sprout and her fabulous techniques with mandrakes (aka mandragoras).

Professor Pomona Sprout is the Head of the Herbology department at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Because of The Stones are working a little more every day, The Grandma has posted another Cambridge Key English Test A2 Example.

Professor Pomona Sprout (born 15 May) is a British witch who worked as Head of Hufflepuff House and Head of the Herbology department at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

She attended the school in her youth, where she was Sorted into Hufflepuff and excelled at Herbology. Some time after her graduation, Sprout returned to Hogwarts to teach.

Professor Sprout opposed Lord Voldemort during the Second Wizarding War. She grew the Mandrakes that would later be used in the Mandrake Restorative Draught to cure those who were petrified by Slytherin's Monster.

She also opposed Dolores Umbridge and her tyranny over the school, which the rest of the staff were happy to join her in doing, voted for the school to remain open after the Battle of the Astronomy Tower, and assisted in ousting Severus Snape.

Sprout took a group of students to the battlements during the Battle of Hogwarts and threw Devil's Snare and various other dangerous plants onto the invading Death Eaters.

More information: Wizarding World I, II & III

She ultimately survived the War. Neville Longbottom taught Herbology, either alongside her or as a replacement.

Pomona Sprout was born into a wizarding family of unknown degree on 15 May in Britain or Ireland. She presumably purchased her wand from Diagon Alley at the age of eleven, prior to attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

She was Sorted into Hufflepuff House upon her arrival at Hogwarts and excelled at Herbology, which may have been taught by Professor Herbert Beery at the time, and likely achieved a high-graded O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. in the subject.

Professor Pomona Sprout

Pomona and Minerva McGonagall's student time at Hogwarts overlapped by two years. The two students enjoyed an excellent relationship both then and in later years. During her time at Hogwarts, she liked attending Quidditch matches.

As the Herbology teacher, Professor Sprout was in charge of doctoring the damaged Whomping Willow by wrapping bandages around the broken branches after Harry Potter and Ron Weasley drove a bewitched car into it.

On the first day of term, Gilderoy Lockhart, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, gave her useless pointers and arrogantly made out that he was a better Herbologist than her, which made her look distinctly cross and not at all her usual cheerful self.

At the end of the year, the Battle of the Astronomy Tower took place, with the Death Eaters invading Hogwarts and fighting against the students, teachers, Aurors and the Order of the Phoenix. Professor Sprout likely participated, as did Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, and Rubeus Hagrid.

More information: Atlas Obscura

Professor Sprout was described as being a squat little witch with short, grey, wavy hair. She usually wore a patched and battered hat. Her clothes were noted to almost always be covered in dirt and earth, and her fingernails were noted to be so filthy they would have made prim and proper Petunia Dursley faint in horror. Sprout also almost always had a smile on her face.

Professor Sprout was noted to be very cheerful, positive, and loyal, but was also very professional and just and would chide her students if necessary.

In Roman mythology, Pomona was the goddess of fruit trees, gardens and orchards. Sprout is a verb meaning to begin to grow, shoot forth, as a plant from a seed.

A Mandrake, also known as Mandragora, is a magical and sentient plant which has a root that looks like a human, like a baby when the plant is young, but maturing as the plant grows. When matured, its cry can be fatal to any person who hears it.

Mandragora autumnalis, known as mandrake or autumn mandrake, is recognized by some sources as a separate species from Mandragora officinarum, although with different circumscriptions. Others regard it as merely part of this very variable species.

The Stones attend Professor Pomona Sprout

Plants given the name Mandragora autumnalis consist of a rosette of leaves up to 60 cm across, close to the ground, with a central group of usually purplish flowers followed by yellow or orange berries. The large tap-roots as well as the leaves contain alkaloids and are toxic. They have traditional uses as herbal medicines.

The boundary between the two species Mandragora autumnalis and Mandragora officinarum varies among authors, with some regarding them as the same species. Whatever distinction is used, plants of M. autumnalis are herbaceous perennials, with a large upright tap-root, often branched and sometimes shaped somewhat like a person.

There is little or no stem, the leaves being borne in a basal rosette up to 60 cm across. The flowers are clustered at the centre of the rosette, each with five sepals, five petals and five stamens. Both the sepals and petals are fused at the base forming two five-lobed bell-shaped cups. The ovary has two chambers, locules, and a long style. The fruit is a fleshy berry with many seeds.

For those authors who regard Mandragora autumnalis as the main species found around the Mediterranean, it has flowers varying in colour but typically violet or purple, 30–40 mm long, and berries that are yellow or orange and egg-shaped, while the much less widespread Mandragora officinarum has somewhat smaller flowers, greenish-white in colour, and berries that are yellow and globe-shaped.

More information: BBC

Those who regard M. officinarum as the main species found around the Mediterranean, with M. autumnalis being found only in the Levant, use the size of the seeds as one of the distinguishing factors, those of M. autumnalis being more than twice the size of those of M. officinarum. In Israel, where the native taxon is M. autumnalis in both approaches, it flowers between December and February.

Mandragora species have a long use in traditional medicine, an extract being used for its real or supposed aphrodisiac, hypnotic, emetic, purgative, sedative and pain-killing effects. Tropane alkaloids are known to be effective as analgesics and anaesthetics, and can be used to increase circulation and dilate pupils, among other effects.

The European Mandrake plant has been used since ancient times as a medicinal plant and has a tradition associated with magical activities and witchcraft.

It is a member of the nightshade family. It contains hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and mandragorin. Medically, it has been used as a pain killer and a sedative. It was used in ancient times for surgery. An overdose, though, can be fatal.

More information: Wired

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I cured all the petrified students with my mandrakes.

That includes your precious Hermione!

Pomona Sprout