Lotophagi

Known to Muggles as the mythical Lotus Tree, the lotophagi is a magical flowering and fruit-bearing tree native to the Mediterranean islands.

Appearance

Full-grown lotophagi trees top out at around ten feet tall, with wide branches and thick green leaves. Its wood is a lovely pink color and has little in the way of bark, but is ill-suited for wand-making due to its fragility and its tendency to interfere with the core's magic. From the spring to autumn equinoxes, it bears white, fragrant flowers the size of cereals bowels with huge, thick petals. Once the fall equinox has passed, these flowers quickly wilt away.

Throughout the year, lotophagi also produce plum-sized pink fruits with peach-like skins and juicy cores. Though tempting, these fruits are the lotophagi's most potent and dangerous magical property.

Magical Properties and Abilities

The wood, leaves, petals, and roots, of the lotophagi all contain various magical properties, but its most well-known stem from the flowers and fruits. The flowers' heavy fragrance is known to spread for several meters in the summertime and causes a lazy drowsiness which often lures passerby into sleeping under its branches. Consuming the fruit is known to put the eater into a deep sleep. Upon waking, the victim often suffers from general to localized amnesia, though its severity differs depending on the victim's body mass, magical potency, and how much of the flesh is consumed.

Uses

Lotophagi fruits are often used by healers as anesthetic for simple but extended procedures, such as dental work or setting particularly difficult bones. Exposure to the calming scent provides similar but slightly weaker effects, which is useful for therapy and calming panic attacks. To this day, many healers in the trees' native islands keep one of the trees on their property to take advantage of both techniques. In addition, the leaves, petals, fruit, and bark are ingredients in many potions.

Illegally, the flowers and fruits are used to create powerful and highly addictive hallucinogenic drugs. Even the petals, when dried and smoked, produce mild hallucinations and a floating, dreamy laziness in the user. Rumors of floating with more potent concoctions are common, but unproven. Due to its highly addictive nature, all forms of lotophagi-based recreational drug use are strictly forbidden.

Regulation and Rarity

It is legal to cultivate lotophagi only with the proper permits from the Ministry of Magic. Permits are granted primarily to Herbologists and Healers with no prior convictions, though there are a few private owners as well.

Appearances in Absit Omen

Faigel, the Caladrius familiar of Darius Gabor, is particularly fond of eating lotophagi petals as a special treat.