50 fresh seeds of Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum)

Item Description: This auction is for 50 fresh seeds of the Mandrake plant.

A native plant of the middle east and to my back yard as well. the fruits are edible.

This plant is a perennial, tallest one I've ever seen was 30cm only, this plant grow in a form of leaves rosette and remain at ground level.

The root is like the bulb of this plant, it can live for many years and grow up to 1.5 meters long and 10cm in diameter and tends to divide into two, resembling the shape of a human body.

This plant gets dormant in the summer times. every autumn the root grows a new rosette of leaves. the leaves grow pretty fast and in only a month they are fully developed. afterwards, flowers begin to develop and they flower during the winter times. soon, fruits will develop and will ripen in the late spring and afterwards the plant will get dormant until next winter, just like winter flower bulbs.

It will start producing fruit when it will be 3 years old.

The main flowering season here in Israel is December-February, the leaves are very fragrant, a Solanaceae scent (like tomatoes leaves), the main fruit ripening season in Israel in April-May.

The fruit itself is sweet-sour and has a very unique taste, like a blend between a tomato and a pineapple. fruits should be picked when they are fully ripe (completely yellow) and then they are good for all eating purposes. don't eat the outer peeling and avoid eating the seeds, these parts are not edible and poisonous and any part of the plant might be toxic so consumption is at your own risk and I don't encourage anyone to consume any part of this plant. the fruit is highly fragrant, one ripe fruit placed in the middle of the room will perfume the whole room with a pineapple like scent.

A fully Grown plant can bear up to 50 fruits every year.

mandrake roots are good to be planted in the autumn, you can buy them now and store them until then if you live in the northern hemisphere. If you want them I suggest you to buy them and store until the autumn.

There are many stories about the fact that eating the fruit increases fertility and one of them appears on the book of Genesis chapter 30.

Growing: This plant is hardy to at least 20F when fully grown, it can be grown anywhere in the the sub-tropics as long as there are cool winters there.

 It requires good Drainage for best growth and is not too picky about soil types.

The plant will benefit from filtered sun. will grow in full sun as well  but will get dormant much faster as the summer arrives.

This plant likes lots of water in the winter times and absolutely no water when it is dormant.