Faith Willard/Venomous Tentacula Essay

Venomous Tentacula Is this plant really something you want to anger?

Venomous. An adjective meaning "full of, or containing venom; poisonous" or "able to inflict a poisoned bite, sting or wound" or "spiteful, malignant."

Venomous Tentacula. A green, spiky, toothsome plant with mobile vines that try to grab living prey. Expels venom from its shoots, and its spikes are deadly. Its bite is highly poisonous and can prove fatal.

It's easy to see here that the Venomous Tentacula is a plant that is clearly not to be messed with. The very description that the textbook provides is one of a highly dangerous plant. A plant that not only protects itself with a poisonous bite, but also from poisonous spikes as well. Basically, everything about this plant is deadly to humans.

There is further evidence, too, of this plants fatal nature to humans. The juice that, should a proper Herbologist manage to extract without getting killed, is extracted is also poisonous-- not to the touch, but is if ingested. It's not deadly, like the bite of the plant, but it does create a burning sensation, and the victim's skin grows dark when they consume this juice. Additionally, the seeds are also dangerous. The Ministry classifies highly dangerous materials as "non-tradeable goods." Class A-- dragon eggs, acromantula eggs-- things of that nature-- are the most dangerous. So while this implies that Venomous Tentacula seeds are less dangerous than these materials, the leaves are dangerous enough to have earned themselves a Class C rating, implying that the trading of these materials are still dangerous, and therefore, non-tradeable.

Moving from the parts, to the plant itself. The plant is made up of several appendages, laced with the aforementioned posionous spikes, and upon each appendage is an eyeless head. Eyeless or not, that head has teeth, and will bite. Not only do they bite, but they are capable of firing spiky spore-like balls out of their mouths. Remember those spikes? Those were poisonous.

There are ways to defeat this plant. The use of a Severing Charm can slice off the appendages, and also act as a way to Stun the plant. I would imagine that some kind of fire charm-- Incendio, or something similar, would work, as many plants seem averse to fire.

The first lesson of the year that Professor Jessica Howe taught was on this particular plant. However, none of what I have discussed in this essay was discussed in class. Instead, Professor Howe gave everyone a metal rod, told us to put on gloves, and offered us masks if we felt we wanted them. She then proceeded to tell us to poke at the plant until it reacted. She told us nothing of how poisonous this plant is. She made no mention of the Severing Charm. She spoke nothing of the spike spores that can come shooting out of their mouths. I felt highly unsafe in her classroom, and when I voiced my opinions, I was assured that she "had the Healing Professor on speed dial" (a reference I assume, to a Muggle phone?). Since it seemed she had no other ways of keeping us safe, and since I didn't have a bezoar on hand, I chose to leave the lesson.

If this is the way that Professor Howe chooses to continue maintaining her classroom-- no instructional time, leaving our lives up to games of chance with highly dangerous plants-- I can say with all certainty that I will not be returning, and I hope for the sake of my classmates that next class they're discussing something far less fatal, if this level of instruction continues.