The Voynich Botanical Plants

Folio 44r, Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum), is a plant from Southern Europe and around the Mediterranean Sea. It is a long-leafed, dark-green plant with greenish-yellow, bell-shaped flowers that grow on stalks to produce orange berries known as “Satan’s apples.” In the Middle Ages the people believed that the forked, parsnip-like taproot, resembling a human form, gave the plant magical powers. The aphrodisiac properties of the mandrake are referred to in Genesis. The Romans gave the root to patients during operations for an anesthetic.