Mandragora L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1972, Flora Europaea. Volume 3. Diapensiacea to Myoporaceae, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press : 199-200

12. Mandragora L. 1

Perennial herbs with stout, erect, often bifid, occasionally anthropomorphic, fleshy tap-root; acaulescent or with very short stem. Leaves in a dense basal rosette, simple. Flowers solitary, axillary. Calyx campanulate, 5-lobed, accrescent. Corolla campanulate, 5-lobed, plicate between the lobes, persistent. Stamens 5, subexserted, inserted in lower half of corollatube; filaments villous below; anthers dorsifixed. Ovary surrounded at base by glandular disc; stigma capitate. Fruit a berry, becoming unilocular by obliteration of septum.

Literature: J. G. Hawkes, Bot. Jour. Linn. Soc. 65: 356 (1972).

Corolla not more than 2-5 cm, greenish-white, with narrowly triangular lobes; berry globose 1. officinarum Corolla (2-5-)3-4cm, violet, with wide triangular lobes; berry ellipsoid 2. autumnalis