Lesson Two

Forests

Watch your step, the roots have made the path very lumpy in spots. I think we'll stop here for a breather. The forest really is quite something, isn't it? With the trees towering above our heads and the leaves and branches so thick that hardly any light filters through...

It's easy to think of forests as just that: lots and lots of trees. But they (and this one is no exception) are so much more than that.

It helps to think about a forest in layers. Up top, you've got the canopy. This is the layer made of leaves and branches where the trees collect the sunlight they need to live. Then there are the tree trunks which are home to other plants, such as climbing vines. Then you get down to the undergrowth, where low-lying plants grow. Finally, there's the forest floor where lots of leaves and dead wood collect, creating a carpet which is home to lots of different organisms.

Trees

By definition, trees are perennial plants (meaning they can survive for multiple growing seasons) with a long, often woody stem or trunk. They're also a good example of the 'competition' we talked about last lesson. The trees all need sunlight and to avoid having their access to it blocked by the neighbouring trees, they have to grow as tall and wide as possible. When a tree falls or is cut down, it creates a valuable gap in the canopy that other trees will race (albeit very slowly) to fill.

Trees are also a good example of a conundrum that often faces herbologists and potioneers: what is a magical plant, exactly?

Now, there are a few species of tree that are very obviously magical. Any of you who've strayed too close to the Whomping Willow could tell us as much. It can move, for one thing. It also has senses, to some degree. It knows when someone has come too close and it can attack them. Then you have trees which have undeniably magical effects on us like the alihotsy, the leaves of which cause hysteria and uncontrollable laughter.

But what about the 'regular' trees like the ones around us now? They don't move, attack or do anything but grow quietly. And yet, we can use their wood to create powerful magical objects, like wands and broomsticks. It's the same with many herbs we use in potions: the plants themselves don't seem obviously magic in themselves, in the way a flitterbloom does. They might not even have a particular effect on us when we eat them, like alihotsy leaves do. But as part of a potion, they can do magical things.

Some of the species we can see around us right now are beech, oak, pine, sycamore and yew. They're all trees that are commonly used for wands. But does that mean that these 'ordinary' trees have some hidden magic of their own? That's a question which wand-makers have been arguing over for centuries.

One thing we do know though: only certain pieces of wood from certain trees make good-quality wands. You can sometimes tell which trees have the potential to be wand-worthy because that is where bowtruckles usually choose to live. If you remember back to lesson 1 where I explained what an indicator species is, then you'll realise that that means bowtruckles are an indicator for wand wood trees. Perhaps Bowtruckles just like particularly healthy trees and those just happen to make the best wands. Perhaps there's some deeper magic at play...

Climbing Plants

Climbing plants that you might see around here are ivy and honeysuckle.

One I've heard quite a few of you complaining about this morning is the common nettle. You can identify it by its oval leaves: they're flat and spread out to maximise the amount of sun its able to soak up. This is a useful plant in potions (you might remember using it when brewing the Boil-Cure potion in your first year) and makes delicious teas and soups. Unfortunately, it also stings. Anyone whose brushed up against it won't be surprised to hear that people call it 'burn-hazel'.

A more crowd-pleasing woodland plant is the snowdrop. These have tiny white flowers that pop up in winter and early spring (between January and March). They are incredibly hardy as they can survive freezing temperatures. The ends of their leaves are particularly tough, to allow them to push through cold hardened ground. We use them in the Extimulo Potion.

Then there are foxgloves. These beautiful plants with their vivid spikes of purplish, tube-shaped flowers can reach up to 2 metres tall. They're a useful potions ingredient but also a powerful poison, as they contain chemicals that affect the heart. They have been associated with magic for centuries; in fact, muggles used to think you could use foxglove to force a fairy changeling to reveal itself.

Now, I can't talk about the forest floor without touching on fungi (mushrooms, toadstools, etc). If you remember back to last lesson, I explained that these act as decomposers. They grow on the wood that falls from the trees and on other waste material, breaking it down and releasing the nutrients back into the soil.

While fungi aren't plants, strictly speaking, they are still important in Herbology and potion making. This colourful customer over here is yellow stagshorn: it's a jelly fungus (which is just as slimy as it sounds), known for the way it branches out like a deer's antlers. It isn't poisonous but it's not exactly tasty either. You need to be careful when looking for fungi in the forest though as you might run across the highly toxic death cap. That's credited with most mushroom related poisonings worldwide because it looks just like a harmless mushroom.

If you look very closely at that log over there, you might just catch a glimpse of another fungus that calls the forest home. You'll have to be quick though! Yes, see that thing with the white stem and red and white cap? Oh, there it goes! My goodness, it must have jumped four feet at least. That's the leaping toadstool in its natural habitat for you, folks.

Now, I think we'd probably best head back to school before something notices we're here... Hang on, did I say that out loud? What I meant is that we better head back in time for lunch.

This way!