Mandrakes are said to Scream when Removed
The mandrake is a perennial herbaceous plant with long thick roots and thick leaves often arranged like the petals of a rose. The root is hallucinogenic and narcotic and was used as an anaesthetic for surgery in ancient times. The root and leaves are toxic and poisonous, and can lead to madness if eaten in large quantities.
In folklore, many legends and tales have been told about the mandrake. The best known is probably that the plant screams when pulled up. Another superstition adds that those who do pull a mandrake out of the ground will be condemned to hell while all others who heard the mandrake's 'scream' will be killed shortly afterwards. Such stories may have evolved because the forked root is shaped like a human (see image below). In the past, people who wanted to remove a mandrake plant from the ground would have tied the roots to an animal then used the animal to pull up the plant.
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