Plants & Human Affairs (BIOL106)  -  Stephen G. Saupe, Ph.D.; Biology Department, College of St. Benedict/St. John's University, Collegeville, MN 56321; ssaupe@csbsju.edu; http://www.employees.csbsju.edu/ssaupe

Halloween Botany

 I. Origin of Halloween

A. Pre-Christian festival of the dead in Ireland/Britain

• Celtic New Year – Samhain (Sah-ween) – Nov 1
• Crop harvest (prepare for winter, end cycle – start new, arrival of new year)
• Also believed spirits of dead people roamed on trip to other world – therefore a time when the souls of the dead mingled with the living
• Bonfires – to light the way for the spirits
• Offerings – food, drink, sacrifices to placate spirits

B. Collision with Christianity

• Early missionaries tried to remove, but unsuccessful
• Got smart, tried to change strategies – if ya can’t beat em, join em" . They figured that if they wouldn’t stop celebrating the pagan holiday, at least they would celebrate on a Christian Holy day.
• Set a Christian holy day at the same time
• All Saint’s Day – Nov 1 – also called All Hallow’s
• Didn’t work too well – pagan traditions maintained cuz it was in imperfect idea. The new idea was not closely enough related to the original tradition.
• In 9^th century add All Soul’s Day – Nov 2 – where living prayed for the dead.
• This didn’t work great either, but eventually forgot the origins
• Celebrate the night before – night when the spirits abounded.
• All Hallow’s Eve – Hallow’s Even – Halloween

C. Activities

1. Trick-or-treating – costumed individuals went door to door dressed as spirits seeking food and drink
2. Jack O’Lantern

• Originally carved into a turnip or rutabaga – couldn’t be a pumpkin cuz not native.
• Legend of the Jack O’Lantern – check out the essay I wrote.

II. Pumpkin Biology

A. Cucurbitaceae – Gourd Family

• "cucurbita" comes from the Latin for "gourd"
• vines
• imperfect flowers
• plants monoecious
• male flowers often appear first, followed by female flowers
• tendrils

B. What’s a pumpkin? Comparison of squash/pumpkin/melons/gourds

C. Importance of Pumpkins

• important to early settlers. Europeans took longer time to appreciate.
• Probably domesticated for seed – rich in protein & oil
• Probably not domesticated for fruit – bitter and thin fleshed.

D. Kinds (species)

5. Miscellaneous

• Flowers edible
• Contamination – according to folk tales – you shouldn’t plant gourds near squash because you’ll will grow bitter squash. This is not true. – although the two may hybridize, the taste is determined by material genes. This will not affect the current generation but could impact the next open.
• Milk – does watering your plants with milk make them grow more? Laura Ingalls Wilder reported that it did in her "Little House" books
• Scarring – if you want your name or other written on a pumpkin, scratch it into the skin when the pumpkin is young.
• Summer vs. winter squash

III. Witches & Ergot

A. Introduction

• Salem Witch Trials – 1692
• 14 women, 5 men hanged, 1 man "pressed to death"
• many others were accusers (had fits) or were accused of being a witch
• interesting because: (a) it was 47 years after the witch trials in England; (b) there were few trials before Salem (only 5 in MA), (c) it stopped abruptly; and (d) not in other villages

B. Possible Explanations (hypotheses)

• Witchcraft was really practiced
• Fraud (to gain notoriety, protect from punishment)
• Hysteria (guilt, repressive society)
• Physiological cause (i.e., ergot poisoning)

C. Ergot & Salem

1. References:

• Linnda Corporeal (1976) Science 192: 21 – 26.
• Mary Matossian (1982). Amer. Sci. 70: 355 – 357.

2. Hypothesis - Salem affair was initiated because individuals ate bread/products from ergot-infected rye. This caused the symptoms of bewitchment.

3. Ergot Biology

• Parasitizes rye flowers
• Releases spores, land on stigma, enter pistil, grow to ovary
• Ovary replaced by fungus mycelium
• Produces more spores in a sweet nectar (dispersed by insects to other plants)
• Mycelium hardens to become a sclerotium ("sun burnt" grains). Resting/dormant/resistant phase
• Fall to ground, germinate in the spring
• Produce a stalked structure that produces more spores.

4. Ergot Chemistry

• produces about 1% alkaloids
• Two major kindsof alkaloids

Clavine (i.e., ergotamine)

• Used medicinally since 1582 (German midwives recognized use in childbirth)
• Childbirth & migraine
• Vasoconstrictor – reduce blood flow after childbirth and dilation of vessels that may be associated with migraine headaches

Lysergic Acid derivatives

• Studied by Albert Hoffman (Sandoz Chemical)
• Hallucinogenic effects

5. Gangrenous ergotism

• Serious problem
• Between 1580 � 1900, 65 major episodes worldwide (29 in Germany, 11 Russia, 5 US. 1977 Ethiopia)
• In 994 there were 4000 recorded deaths; in 1041 at least 2000 deaths
• St. Antony�s fire (Patron Saint of fire). Egypt, 3/4^th century; hermit, monk
• Peter the Great called off attack on Turkey because 20,000 men and horses stricken
• Napoleon (1812 � 1813) defeat was related to ergot
• Caused by clavine alkaloids
• Symptoms � constriction of vessels, especially extremities; burning, alternate with cold sensations; numbness, blackening, odor, death

6. Convulsive Ergotism

• due to proportion of lysergic acid derivatives
• twitching head, arms, feet
• vomit, nausea
• deafness, blindness
• hallucinations

7. Evidence for ergotism

• symptoms of bewitched matched ergotism (giddiness, nausea, convulsions, pinch/bite, formication, weak
• children/women affect (i.e., smaller, nursing)
• perfect growing conditions for fungus (severe winter 1690-1; wet cool in 1691 when started, dry cool 1692 when ended)
• alkaloids stable for 2 years (i.e., still toxic after harvest)
• many of afflicted lived in low, wet areas (likely growing spots)
• unrelated to causes of other witch trials (cuz so long after)
• horses and children afflicted with symptoms (even death) BEFORE witch accusations began

IV. Broad Beans (Vicia faba; Fabaceae – Legume Family)

• Fava beans, horse beans
• Cultivated in Mediterranean for at least 6000 years
• Beans thrown at ghosts on All Saints Eve – our "Halloween"
• Women would abstain from eating them for fear of being impregnated by ghosts of frustrated men
• Most people can eat broad beans with impunity, however some people are allergic. Cause red blood cell destruction because they lack an enzyme to detoxify the toxin.

Last updated:  10/31/2008 / � Copyright  by SG Saupe