Eating Death?
In poking around more while researching stuff for my coming discussion of Severus and Voldemort for Indestructible, I discovered a curious little fact that seems fitting.
In " Indestructible Intermezzo II - Etymological Excursus," I noted that:
"Our poison synonym, ‘toxic,’ on the other hand, derives ultimately from the Greek word for bow, toxon: the term toxicon pharmakon referred to the poison smeared on arrows, and was borrowed into Latin as toxicum, ‘poison.’ Meanwhile the probably-Scythian word for bow that entered Greek as toxon was also borrowed directly into Latin as taxus, the Latin word for ‘yew.’ A tree long associated with both death and resurrection, and from whose wood, of course, Voldemort got his wand."
And today, while researching the yew tree, I found an unexpected connection back to Severus.
All species of yew tree are known to contain varieties of a highly toxic class of alkaloids called taxanes. Every part of the tree other than the flesh of the red berry-like arils contains these toxins, including the seeds, wood, and leaves. Though the birds who eat the arils and spread the seeds are generally unable to break down the seeds and be affected by the poison, and larvae of a few species of moth and butterfly will eat yew foliage, to most animals consuming yew is fatally poisonous. Human beings consuming yew 'berries' without removing the seeds have died, and cattle and horses have been found dead near yew trees after trying to eat the leaves.
There does, however, seem to be an exception to this rule. Deer are able to break down the toxin, and so will eat the leaves of yew trees. Indeed, they graze so freely on yew that in the wild yew trees are commonly found only on steep slopes inaccessible to deer.
Apparently deer can eat death and live.
You can't make this stuff up.
In " Indestructible Intermezzo II - Etymological Excursus," I noted that:
"Our poison synonym, ‘toxic,’ on the other hand, derives ultimately from the Greek word for bow, toxon: the term toxicon pharmakon referred to the poison smeared on arrows, and was borrowed into Latin as toxicum, ‘poison.’ Meanwhile the probably-Scythian word for bow that entered Greek as toxon was also borrowed directly into Latin as taxus, the Latin word for ‘yew.’ A tree long associated with both death and resurrection, and from whose wood, of course, Voldemort got his wand."
And today, while researching the yew tree, I found an unexpected connection back to Severus.
All species of yew tree are known to contain varieties of a highly toxic class of alkaloids called taxanes. Every part of the tree other than the flesh of the red berry-like arils contains these toxins, including the seeds, wood, and leaves. Though the birds who eat the arils and spread the seeds are generally unable to break down the seeds and be affected by the poison, and larvae of a few species of moth and butterfly will eat yew foliage, to most animals consuming yew is fatally poisonous. Human beings consuming yew 'berries' without removing the seeds have died, and cattle and horses have been found dead near yew trees after trying to eat the leaves.
There does, however, seem to be an exception to this rule. Deer are able to break down the toxin, and so will eat the leaves of yew trees. Indeed, they graze so freely on yew that in the wild yew trees are commonly found only on steep slopes inaccessible to deer.
Apparently deer can eat death and live.
You can't make this stuff up.