HERB-501 Lessons

Year Five, Lesson Nine
Preview of Dangerous and Difficult Plants

Introduction

Welcome back to Greenhouse One. I hope those aren’t disappointed looks on your faces! After all, many interesting plants reside here, though they do not have incredibly specific needs (nor are they likely to kill you). You can also see I’ve brought specimens from elsewhere to supplement. Today we simply needed a less perilous place to discuss our topics for the day so you can concentrate without simultaneously worrying about safety of life and limb. While we will, of course, be examining plants, we will also be touching upon some important topics of wizarding citizenship that haven’t before fit elsewhere: environmental consciousness and ethics. 

As you know just from reading the paper or listening to the radio, the world is changing, and even small changes can upset the delicate balance of ecosystems. Many plants -- particularly tropical ones that are especially sensitive to slight changes in weather patterns and temperature -- are becoming increasingly rare or going extinct altogether. And, as we learned last year, creatures are inseparably linked to plant life. They may live in trees or nests, eat plant material for food, or need plants for their medicinal qualities. Damage to plant life can set off a chain reaction that destabilizes entire ecosystems. I don’t have to tell you how problematic ecological destabilization can be for the world and your way of life. But I will tell you that, sadly, it does appear to be happening more and more frequently. Naturally, there are quite a few witches and wizards who might like to stop it… so why haven’t we?

Just Because You Can...

This is an excellent question with quite a few different answers if we’re thorough about it. There are multiple factors to why the magical community has allowed environmental issues to continue and worsen over the years. The first of these is the general policy of non-interference with the non-magical world. While this may sound like a poor excuse, history has shown us that oftentimes interfering in Muggles’ lives to solve problems doesn’t actually solve them. It just multiplies them. If witches and wizards had taken steps to prevent climate change, the Muggles may not have even realized their actions were having a negative impact. Because of our interference, they would have seen no changes at all and, naturally, assumed nothing was wrong. Rather than looking for ways to make industries more environmentally friendly, they may have gone the opposite route, not knowing the damage they were causing. When it all eventually became too much and we were unable to keep hiding the problems, the Muggles would suddenly be faced with potentially irreversible damage with no warning at all. 

Also, consider that the magical community must remain hidden. With the far-reaching effects of climate change, and the fact that Muggles are actively studying it, it would be very difficult to reverse the problem without Muggles noticing. If the polar ice caps stopped melting tomorrow for no apparent reason, they would be quite surprised, to say the least, and may even start investigating how it happened. In the worst case scenario, our entire way of life would be compromised. In the best case scenario, Muggles would blindly accept it and assume the planet just fixed itself, leading to the first scenario we discussed.

The final (and most important) reason why we haven’t fixed all of the planet’s environmental issues is that we can’t. We are actually incapable. I see some looks of surprise, but surely by now you know that we are not all-powerful, and neither is magic. While it is technically possible to affect the weather, as I’m sure you know, it is despicably difficult even in small scale situations. Weather-based magic is decidedly tricky and often results in unpredicted after-effects, even if you are able to achieve your initial goal. The backlash can be devastating. For example, the overuse of Aguamenti can cause droughts, the Cooling Enchantment or the Freezing Charm can cause temperature destabilization and bring on storms, and it’s entirely possible that trying to correct the environment could turn the entire planet tropical or bring on that new ice age everyone’s worried about.

Gardi-ans of the Galaxy

However, as concerned citizens of the world, we’re obviously not just going to stand by and watch. So what can we do to help? Fortunately, there are a number of different methods, strategies, and even simple spells you can start using today, now that you’re aware. 

First of all, one of the easiest ways to help the environment is to help our fellow men. This means examining Muggle practices and helping them along in ways that the ISoS allows. This is a common enough practice, particularly in areas of science, as you learned as far back as your very first lesson of Astronomy. It’s best when we work together and use both of our combined talents and insights to find solutions. 

Second, improving the environment can be as simple as cleaning up after ourselves, which, for witches and wizards, takes very little effort at all. If you’ve been paying attention in Transfiguration this year, by now you are at least partially proficient in vanishment! If you have refuse or unwanted garbage, simply vanish it! Breaking things down into their requisite parts is much better than leaving it to pollute groundwater, trap unwary creatures, or generally take up space. Or, if vanishment vexes you, there are also commercially available products to vanish waste entirely as well as sort and send your reusable materials to be upcycled! The latter, Ragnar’s Readymade Recycler, is able to sort through the things that should simply be vanished while saving those that can be reused (saving you the hassle and energy).

Of course, if you have natural waste products, I also have a little compost heap (bespelled with a Melodorous Charm) around the back of Greenhouse Seven to augment my planting soil. However, if that’s too much trouble, vanish it straight away! This is one of the many advantages we have over our Muggle counterparts. 

Next, there is the matter of simply being conscious of your actions. Be aware of the effects that your magic use can have. For example, while a stray Aguamenti during a drought or a single Freezing Charm in the desert isn’t going to muck things up too much, before going bigger, consider the cost. Do some research on the possible impacts your spells can have before casting willy nilly (though you will eventually learn with experience). Until then, err on the side of caution. Don’t try difficult weather-modifying charms without having done a lot of legwork first (and, ideally, without someone experienced to help), and consider whether it is truly necessary to cast the charm at all, and perhaps forgo if not.

Also, though I hope it should go without saying, do not contribute to extinction (or increased danger of extinction or even simple ecological imbalance). You can do this by only taking what you need (or only taking what the current population of an herb can handle) when harvesting a plant. Is there only a handful of specimens of that particular plant alive in the wild? Best only to take one leaf or petal at a time, if you indeed must take anything at all. Better yet, if you’re aware of an endangered species, start a conservation program. You can grow them in greenhouses to supply potioneers and remove the need to collect them in the wild. Indeed, you could even introduce some of your own cultivated plants into nearby habitats! You have the power to make a huge difference. 

On the other side of that coin, though, don’t go introducing plants into the wild indiscriminately. As we’ve discussed, non-native plants can often become invasive and devastate the environment to which they’re introduced. Keep a tight rein on the plants you grow in your greenhouse that aren’t endemic to our Scottich lochs and fens. If your wild rice sneaks out, I will have to insist you chase it down before it causes some strange imbalances in the Forbidden Forest and the grounds. And if you think that perhaps the plucky plants of Hogwarts are hardy enough not to need protecting, just imagine the havoc a hybridized walking Whomping Willow could cause! We’re doing this as much for our own protection as the plants’!

Finally, and most importantly to our discussion today, it’s possible to engineer (or find) plants that are solutions to our environmental problems in and of themselves! Back in your First Year, we talked about how some plants were deemed “solution plants” for gardening issues such as soil erosion or pests. But this is not all that plants can do! Just as an example, in Year Four, Lesson Eight, we talked a great deal about Smogwood, a tree (or many types of trees) that were able to magically absorb air pollution and release it in smaller, more manageable amounts to reduce environmental impact. This is not the only one of its kind! Many other plants have been developed to be answers to environmental problems, and many more are still in progress. Perhaps you can come up with the next one! If not, never fear, you can also purposefully cultivate these plants to do your part. Let’s take a look at some popular options. As a note, many of these are quite difficult to cultivate -- thus their inclusion in this year of study -- but not impossible for students of your skill!

PVC Plant

The name is rather uninventive, but I like to think the herbologists that came up with it were simply too worn out to do much else after creating this masterpiece of a plant. As you’ll see, the PVC Plant was quite tricky to develop due to a number of factors, but let’s dive into the basics. The reason it is so special is because this plant actually breaks down plastic and uses it to grow, rather than relying on photosynthesis, water, and soil. The plant takes in plastic and carbon dioxide and gives off oxygen -- the perfect environmental solution, some say!

It was difficult to engineer due to the fact that it was most needed in areas with a highly concentrated Muggle presence. While magical folk do use plastic, of course, you’ll find that the majority of wizard-made products contain natural materials, like glass, stone, clay, metal, or something along those lines. Additionally, as has been pointed out, we can vanish any products we no longer desire, thus a lack of landfills -- and heaps of plastic. While it would certainly alert non-magical folk if their landfills suddenly vanished overnight, a slow decay of some plastic materials is much easier to miss. This is where the PVC Plant comes into play. It was genetically engineered to look more like a mold or a moss (depending on a few factors including the type of plastic it is consuming as well as how long it’s been growing) and simply creeps over the surface of an object and begins to break it down. How long this takes largely depends on the size of the object, but generally speaking, a single PVC Plant can consume up to one pound of plastic a day. 

To care for a PVC Plant, one must ensure that you have a good supply of plastic. Additionally, while it has no specific sunlight, water, or soil needs, the plant does generally do better in moist areas (a boon in terms of making the PVC Plant look more convincingly like mold, as these are the same conditions that mold thrives in). Sadly, it is an annual herb, so it must be replanted every year, as it does not produce spores, seeds, or anything of that nature. This dark green, and in some cases almost black, plant can be a very rewarding pet project to grow. If you are interested in cultivating a sample, it is relatively easy to produce a strain once you have learned the appropriate spell and potion combination. I can show you how if you come visit outside of class hours.

As far as uses, it has relatively few other than its function as a solution for plastic waste. However, it can be used in the Troll Hide Tonic, a potion that makes the imbiber slightly more resistant to magic cast on it. Finally, there has been talk of attempting to further engineer the plant to make it better suited to underwater growth (which, while presently possible, does have some associated challenges), which is a nice segue into our next plant.

Yabujorra

Native to the coasts of Australia and surrounding regions, one would be forgiven for mistaking Alcyoneum mentior with a member of the animal kingdom. No, it doesn’t represent a misshapen infant or the head of some mammal. Instead, it looks identical to one of the lesser-known members of the animal kingdom: coral. The Great Barrier Reef, as some of you will know, has lost much of its coral, removing the habitat of many underwater wildlife as well as significantly upsetting the ecosystem. With plant-based knowledge courtesy of some of the Aboriginal populations in the region, herbologists have finally cultivated a plant that can help with that situation. This one inch tall plant grows to look and behave exactly like coral, and it offers a home to many of the sea creatures that have been affected by coral reef disappearance. 

As you might expect, this is a bit contentious, as we can’t be sure of the overarching ramifications of what replacing real coral with Yabujorra are. However, studies also show that despite its aggressive nature, the plant will not take over a patch of already-formed coral, so there is little danger that the Yabujorra will contribute to the further “deforestation” of our ocean floors. Ongoing research into many topics surrounding “counterfeit coral” is being pursued in many different research centers, in both public and private locales. Topics include how to potentially make the plant into a food source for coral (or in some other way attract it to grow on top of already present Yabujorra), ways to make different strains that look and behave like different species of coral, and ways to make it die off to allow coral to take its place.

To care for the aquatic Yabujorra, you need a tank of any size (it is able to adapt to any given space on the seafloor) that will allow the plant to get at least three hours of sunlight (partial shade). Other than that, there is not much else to do, apart from ensuring that the plant does not fall prey to diseases or pests. It is a very hardy, aggressive plant by nature, as it was designed to be. Additionally, this plant is a perennial herb, so there is no need to replant it again and again. Its uses are few, as, like most “solution” plants, they were specifically developed for one purpose, and any additional properties are not of key importance to herbologists and potion makers. The few uses include its application as a substitution for rarer ingredients that cause an increase in energy as well as a colorant in potions (or green dye).

...Doesn't Mean You Should

As you can see, there’s plenty you can do and plenty that can still be done. With just a little time left, we can briefly touch on ethics, including the introduction of non-native species, as I alluded to above, and the considerations one should take when harvesting.

There are a couple other ways that ethics enter into the herbological conversation. Just because you can grow something… should you? We’ve talked about poisons, and carnivores, and plants that make potions that can harm. Herbology is not always bright and sunny. Should you grow plants that can be used in love potions? Plants that can be used in untraceable poisons? Plants that may end up eating your next-door-neighbor’s dog? That, ultimately, is up to you. A single plant can usually be used for many things -- especially when you bring substitutions into the picture -- but if you don’t want to, no one will force you!

If you’ve been paying attention, you can likely think of many plants that could be used for less-than-pleasant purposes. However, I’d like to take the rest of the class to highlight one other plant that poses problematic ethical questions.

Exasperplant

One of those plants is fondly referred to as the Exasperplant, whose common name was coined by Nosipho Esi in 1901 after finding a strange, weak-looking plant in the Congo and bringing it back home to try to propagate it. All efforts were thwarted, and it almost seemed like everything he did made it worse. It wasn’t until his children happened to be napping in the garden did they notice, upon waking, that there was a plant with a dazzling, brilliant blue blossom. Esi ran to his garden to look for this plant, but found nothing other than the same wilted weed he always had and chalked up the plant description to his children’s dreams. 

However, the same thing kept happening -- a servant noted a glimpse of a blue plant when gardening late at night, but it quickly disappeared. Neighbors commented on his stunning blue flower that they saw from their bedroom balcony a few miles away. Additionally, the plant -- despite constantly appearing on death’s door -- continued to hold up for nearly a decade. 

Eventually, he realized it was only feigning illness and was indeed quite healthy. It is unclear why exactly the plant does this. Perhaps it is a defense mechanism to keep it from being overharvested, or perhaps it just likes playing tricks. Whatever the case, Exasperplants certainly do live up to their names. Finding one is quite difficult, as they can easily be confused with wilted pennywort or a few other species common to the area. Additionally, trying to propagate the plant can prove tricky as well, as you can’t tell what’s hurting its growth and what’s helping.

However, it does look like it needs some care, and many herbologists posit that it actually does better in captivity as it may enjoy all the extra attention and being generally irksome. Still, there’s not much of a guide as to what the plant needs. Generally, people try to mimic the environment where it was found (partial to full shade, frequent water, and rather acidic soil from 4.9 to 5.5), but there are plenty of specimens that have survived outside those parameters. 

The plant’s medicinal and magical purposes are also vexing to attain; only the flower is of any use. The stems, roots, leaves, etc. have no value in potions or preparations. The flower petals, if eaten whole, make the consumer quite docile and open to suggestion, which made it a favorite among kings and khans for unruly wives, and among the magical elite for their children. The effects are temporary, though last potentially as long as an entire evening. More modern benefits include its use in the Babelfish Brew and Anke’s Analytical Tonic.

The problem lies in harvesting the flower petals… as they rarely ever show. Essentially one must “sneak up on it” in some way or another; it has to be unaware that you are watching it. Herbologists are unsure exactly how it “knows” you’re watching it, but it likely has to do with sensing movement or reflection of light nearby, so harvesting in the dark, standing very still, being far enough away with a magical snipping contraption (or a Severing Charm and excellent aim) are all possible options.

Closing

But that’s enough of serious concerns. You’ve only got room for one very serious concern on your mind right now, I expect! I’ll leave you to digest those thoughts over the summer once you’ve made room for them after O.W.L.s. My office -- and more importantly my greenhouses -- are available to you should you want extra help or have last minute questions between now and your exams. However, if you’re worried, it wouldn’t hurt to look over some of the review assignments from this year. There is no final, just a quiz on the information covered in this lesson, one last practical romp through the greenhouses for old time’s sake, and an extra credit opportunity if you find yourself in the library for a little herbology research. It’s been a pleasure teaching you all, and I hope to see many of you next year!

Original lesson written by Professor Venita Wessex

Image credits here, here, here, here, here and here