The Herbal World of Harry Potter

Universal Studios did a fine job recreating Diagon Alley (a cobbled wizarding alley and shopping area located in London, England) for us to walk through.  We could ship something through the Owl's post or purchase a wand at Ollivander's.   Of course, I was most taken by the Dogweed and Deathrow Botanical Shop.   This was purely scenery and not a shop we could enter so I can only suppose what plants were inside.  Perhaps some Aconite, aka Wolfsbane, to keep werewolves from going loco, and used in Harry Potter Potions.  Or maybe some of the toxic Mandrake, the tangled root helps Harry's teachers reverse the turn-to-stone spell.

This garden scene was at the top part of the Hogwart's Universal Studios Castle.    Perhaps these silk plants represent Nettles used by Wizards to cure boils or maybe Wormwood,  the ingredient used in sleeping potions in the Potter books.  Part of the fun of the Harry Potter books is the old Anglo-Saxon and Latin terms author J.K. Rowling uses such as "wizengamot" (a meeting of witches and wizards for judicial purposes).

Many herbs still have the old names such as Beewort (lemon balm) or cowslip (primroses).




This one is perhaps Dragonwort? Artemesia dracunculus , The roots are said resemble the head of a dragon or to grow where the blood of the dragon has been spilled.