Talk:Broomrape

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	Broomrape is within the scope of WikiProject Plants, an attempt to better organize information in articles related to plants and botany. For more information, visit the project page.
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The paragraph about use by witches is problematical. Firstly, witches were definitely not druids. Secondly, it's well documented that the name broomrape is nothing to do with sexual penetration - rather, it's from the Latin rapum genistae, which translates as "a lump on a broom (Genista) bush". On the other hand, the application of alkaloid-containing plant material such as mandrake to the mucous membranes of the vagina does have the ring of truth. It's known that 16th century British witches applied such herbal compounds externally so that they were absorbed through the skin to give hallucinations of flying; the alkaloids would be absorbed even more effectively if applied in the way suggested here.