Woodcut of female and male human figures with a mandrake plant growing from the top of their heads, 1491. Mandrake is the common name for members of the plant genus Mandragora, particularly the species Mandragora officinarum, belonging to the nightshades family (Solanaceae). The roots sometimes resemble human figures and their roots have long been used in magic rituals. According to the legend, when the root is dug up it screams and kills all who hear it. Literature includes complex directions for harvesting a mandrake root in relative safety. It was a common folklore that mandrake would only grow where the semen of a hanged man had dripped on to the ground; the reason for the methods employed by the alchemists who "projected human seed into animal earth". All parts of the mandrake plant are poisonous. Uses in witchcraft and magic include: baneful work,saturn herb, divination and prosperity spells.