Click photo for larger image.
Click photo for larger image.
Garlic, top, purple loosestrife, center, and tobacco are some of the medicinal plants explored by Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden in "The Fountain of Youth" exhibit on display through April 2. Click photo for larger image.

Bending the environment to suit our purposes has always been one of mankind's most passionate and vital endeavors. At times, we have turned to plants and plants have never failed us. They, sometimes literally, spring forward to provide food, shelter, clothing, medicine and even respite from the hardships of everyday life.

"The Fountain of Youth" exhibit, which is on display through April 2 at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, explores the plants people and cultures have used throughout history to keep themselves looking, feeling and acting young.

But medicinal plants were once much more than mere tools. Imagine the wonder and curiosity with which our distant ancestors contemplated their surroundings. As they observed and struggled to understand the continuous cycle of death and rebirth of the natural world, they saw magic all around them. If plants were magical, then perhaps this magic could be captured and directed to provide some relief from disease and misfortune. It might even be used to appease the gods.

Lowly garlic has long enjoyed a reputation as a magical plant that could be used against the forces of evil. It was so revered by the Egyptians that it was used in the mummification process. It was even found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen.

Ulysses also made good use of garlic, or moly, as it was known. The sorceress Circe was so overcome by its aroma that she released all of his men from captivity.

Garlic was not the only member of the allium family to be treasured. In the layers of the onion, the Egyptians found a symbol of the universe. They believed that the layering demonstrated how the nether world was surrounded by the earth, which was in turn enveloped by the heavens. So sacred was the onion to the Egyptians that they swore oaths on it.

Plant lore and magic traveled throughout the ancient world, from Egypt to Greece and Rome. It was spread by conquest and by necessity. Dioscorides, a Greek physician who traveled with the Roman army, wrote "De Materia Medica," one of the most influential herbal books for 1,500 years. Through his influence and that of other herbal chroniclers, plant knowledge as well as lore was spread along trade routes and paths of conquest throughout the ancient world.

The use of plants in magical potions abounded. These readily entwined with their medicinal uses, some of which have been shown to be valid under modern scientific scrutiny.

For example, periwinkle was believed to ward off evil spirits and today, one variety is an invaluable agent against leukemia. The ancient Roman naturalist Pliny described how loosestrife was woven into a garland and hung around the necks of oxen to make them pull together as a team. Today, loosestrife is considered an invasive plant. Perhaps there are uses we haven't yet discovered!

Love potions and beauty nostrums were so popular that Pliny offered this recipe to prevent wrinkles: leaves of maidenhair fern steeped in the urine of a young boy, pounded with saltpeter, then applied to the abdomen.

The "golden bough" referred to in Virgil's "Aeneid" was mistletoe. To the Druids, it appeared that the plant sprang out of nothing and hung magically from the oak trees that supported it. In fact, it is propagated by bird droppings. They noted that it never touched the ground and so they harvested it with a golden sickle. They believed that if it fell to the ground, it would lose its magical powers.

After an elaborate ritual, it was brewed into a potion that bestowed good health. For hundreds of years mistletoe was hung in homes as protection against all manner of ills. Interestingly, the medication Iscador, made from mistletoe, is now being tested as a cancer treatment.

In the New World, the Spaniards found that the Aztecs worshipped tobacco. They prayed to it and asked for its assistance in everything, including the success of new crops. This prompted the Spanish to pray that they would be freed from the devil who disguises himself as tobacco.

Visitors to the Stove Room at Phipps will walk past vignettes that focus on a period of time and various cultures' botanical beauty beliefs. Cultures profiled include ancient Greeks, ancient Egyptians, the Mayans and Aztecs, ancient Asian empires, the Medieval and American Colonial eras.

We don't promise any cures, just some insight and understanding of the role of nature to the mind, body, and spirit.