Rapunzel flower

 

Rapunzel is one of the most well loved characters by the Brothers Grimm. It's about a princess with extremely long hair and she's kept in a tower by a cruel witch until a prince arrives. Rapunzel's long luscious hair is what stands out in the story and is the main theme. Her name comes from the same root vegetable that her mother used to eat. It's believed that eating the Rapunzel plant gave her daughter very long long hair that she braided and used for the witch to climb up, and then for the prince who loved her. 

The Rapunzel vegetable isn't a fairy tale invention. It's most commonly named today the rampion bellflower, or the scientific name Campanula Rapunculus. It grows anywhere from woodlands to roadsides, as it's a hardy winter plant. It appears as pretty flowers throughout Spring and Summer. It grows edible roots that resemble turnips, radish and spring onions. Rampion Rapunzel can be used as a crop that should be first fertilised on fresh soil consisting of carbon, sand, phosphorus and nitrogen in June. The vegetables need to be harvested when they're grown full and ready by October or November. 

Besides the fairy story, Rapunzel plants were served on gold plates and were offerings to Apollo. In Italy there was a negative superstition that keeping rampion root at home was believed to cause aggro amongst children. They interpret dreams about rampion plants was a sign of conflict. But it stays as a positive heirloom in Germany, a special herb said to be "king's cure all". 

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Cosmetics in ancient times

In ancient times, makeup was very popular and common. Here is a list:

It was especially amongst both men and women to wear eyeblack, which reduced the glare of sunlight. This is still being used today amongst athletes and outdoor sports players. The Vikings mainly used charcoal for this and applies it over and around their eyes.

Eyeliner and/or Kohl was worn by women and this helped reduce glare, medicinal reasons and enhance their eyes. Kohl was made from antimony, plants, charcoal, galena and soot. Women have been using kohl since ancient times.

Woad was colourful and blue, coming from the Isatis tinctoria plant. Used by both men and women for decoration on the body. Celtic warriors in Britain and Ireland covered themselves in woad warpaint. There are tribes who tattooed themselves in blue patterns, such as the Picts. Women today use eyeshadow of woad.

Berry juice was very popular amongst women for cosmetics. It was used to redden the lips and rouge cheeks. Women from ancient Greece and Rome put on berry juice to appear more vivid and stunning, as their red lips and cheeks brightened their faces. They also used vermillion and red chalk. The use of berry juice continued through the ages to give women rosy complexions. 

Pallor was used to make women extremely ghostly pale, as this was considered a sign of innocence. However in ancient times there were harmful ingredients such as Venetian ceruse and lead. In ancient Egypt women applied lead based pallor as cosmetics but this caused much skin damage and illnesses. Even recent as Victorian times, women applied toxic materials such as arsenic wafers as makeup. 

Belladonna eye drops and eye shadow was used by women in ancient times until the Italian Renaissance period. The use of belladonna was to enlarge and sparkle the eyes. This substance comes from the toxic Deadly Nightshade plant. 

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Darwin's wishing tree

Modern science is often disconnected from anything artistic and spiritual. No one puts science with creative arts or religion together. Science has a clinical view of things, searching for hard cold facts, keeping also with rigid frames of data. However, early scientists were much more fluid and accepting of art and religion. They were wild and also full of dreams, ideals and romantic notions of the world. 

Charles Darwin had many adventures in his life, travelling the world and seeing amazing sights. He didn't regard himself as a scientist. He viewed himself as a naturalist and philosopher. He spent a few years at sea on HMS Beagle, enthusiastic and seeking excitement. 

One of the places he visited was Patagonia in South America. This is a cool mountainous region at the bottom tip of the continent. It's where a section of the Andes mountains are that stretches for 7,000 kilometre across, from Venezuela, Chile and Argentina. Patagonia contains volcanoes and pools, submerged mountains with the peaks above water level. It's got sea lions, penguins, whales, horses, guanaco, flamingos, condor, puma, armadillo and also grey foxes. Darwin encountered all of them and more. He also collected artifacts and so on. 

Darwin visited much more places and formed ideas about natural selection. He came across animals he'd never known existed before. He studied rocks, explored the volcanic terrains, ate fruit and ducked from arrows. One of the most mystical observations he made was on a wishing tree in Argentina. It was called a "Walleechu" by the native population. The tree was an alter full of offerings placed around the branches of various gifts from food, water, clothes and even cigars, tied with colourful thread. Around the tree were bones of horses. Darwin noted all of this and being respectful of their tradition.  

For further reading about this, read the book "Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science." by Renee Bergland.  

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Bringing back the extinct moa bird

 The scientists who brought back the direwolves are now interested in bringing back another extinct animal. This is a giant moa bird native to New Zealand. The moa bird was large and flightless. Various different species of them came in similar shapes. They were tall with long necks but were wiped out by humans several hundred years ago. 

The idea of bringing back the giant South Island moa sounds promising and likely. I'm not an expert although it feels like a door opening here, when science can restore species that have been lost. 

Bringing back animals made extinct by humans is a wonderful advancement as it fills the gaps in nature, healing the world and restoring balance. It shows that humans have moved on today and bringing back extinct animals is not only a move with a more compassionate motive, but as a way to apologise for the cruelties of the past done to wild animals by people.

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