The World of Apples

The apples that aren't

Mandrake

Mandragora officinarum, Solanaceae, the nightshade family

The mandrake is a stemless perennial with a large taproot; its flowers rise in a cluster from the centre of the plant, and “the sweet-smelling fruits resemble small yellow apples”4. Because its root resembles a human body, the plant was once believed to have magical powers; the root contains the poisonous alkaloid hyoscyamine5. Kew gives the native range of Mandragora officinarum as northern Italy to the north-western Balkans2, and treats the autumn-flowering mandrake of the Mediterranean and western Iran, Mandragora autumnalis, as a separate species3,4.

Among the mandrake’s many names the US Forest Service lists Satan’s apple4. In Genesis, Reuben finds mandrakes in the field at the wheat harvest7; Luther’s Bible, in its 1912 revision, calls them Liebesäpfel, love apples6. Middle High German ertaphel, earth apple, meant the mandrake’s fruit, and the cucumber8; Middle Dutch erdappel meant the mandrake’s root9. Both words later passed to the potato8,9.

In North America the mayapple is also called mandrake, or American mandrake4,5.

Sources

  1. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy: Mandragora officinarum, Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Supports: the accepted name and family.
  2. Plants of the World Online: Mandragora officinarum, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: the accepted name and the native range, "N. Italy to NW. Balkan Pen.".
  3. Plants of the World Online: Mandragora autumnalis, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: Mandragora autumnalis as an accepted species, native "Medit. to W. Iran".
  4. The Powerful Solanaceae: Mandrake, US Forest Service, Celebrating Wildflowers. Supports: the name Satan's apple; a stemless perennial with a large taproot and flowers in a cluster from the centre; "The sweet-smelling fruits resemble small yellow apples"; M. officinarum flowering in spring and M. autumnalis in autumn; the mayapple also called American mandrake.
  5. mandrake, American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fifth edition, HarperCollins, 2022. Supports: the belief in its magical powers because its root resembles the human body; the poisonous alkaloid hyoscyamine; the mayapple also called mandrake.
  6. Genesis 30, Lutherbibel 1912, eBible.org. Supports: Reuben finding Liebesäpfel in the field (verse 14).
  7. Genesis 30:14, King James Version, Bible Gateway. Supports: Reuben finding mandrakes in the field at the wheat harvest.
  8. Erdapfel, Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, with Wolfgang Pfeifer's Etymologisches Wörterbuch. Supports: Middle High German ertaphel for the fruit of the mandrake and the cucumber; Erdapfel for the potato from the seventeenth century.
  9. aardappel, Etymologiebank, quoting Van Veen and Van der Sijs (1997) and De Vries (1971). Supports: Middle Dutch erdappel for the mandrake root in 1351, and for the mandrake's fruit, before the potato.