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Greenhouse Three was cleared out for the most part. It was pretty bare except for the odd bush or greenery hanging around and the very large, tall tree at the base end of the Greenhouse. Even though there was no wind, it swayed gently, as if a gentle breeze were present. Light green leaves seemed to teem from the branches in long strands like lank hair. The Weeping Willow was beautiful; Paul had removed all the tables from the greenhouse and sat near the tree, leaning back on his elbows as he peered up at it.
As people began to arrive, Paul said, “Come on in everyone! Have a seat anywhere on the floor near the tree, if you will!” he chuckled and smiled. “And feel free to come closer to the Whomping Willow’s rather lacrimoneous cousin and have a look around...examine her...touch the trunk...anything! We’ll be starting shortly!” Yes, he’d made up a word. But lacrimoneous should totally be a word. Like, Paul couldn’t find a reason why it SHOULDN’T be a word.
Don’t worry, the rest of the inhabitants of Greenhouse Three are safely resting somewhere else for now. Paul seemed relaxed, himself, and smiley as he watched the tree. Really, nothing could burst his bubble right now.
OOC: Hello welcome welcome! Have a look at our rules as well as the site rules. Come on in, get settled, have a little chat, whatever floats your boat. I'll be moving us on in roughly 24 hours. <3
Teapot Occamy| gryphons&giraffes&goats,OH MY | chaser of the truth | flutiful❧
THE TEARS WERE SEEDS! THIS WAS HOW THE TREE REPRODUCED! It all made sense now why the tree cried! So the tears hardened into amber? Weird. ”How does it turn into amber? I thought amber was crystalized resin?” These tears didn’t have the consistency of resin. Seemed to fit with the mythical origin story, which was just that, a myth, but didn’t make sense with what she knew amber to be. Whatever, what she needed to know was that drying the tears made a seed.
Uncorking her vial, Isa carefully squeezed out a drop of the liquid inside into her hand. Satisfied with the droplet in her hand, Isa cast a drying charm on the tear droplet and watched as it hardened into amber. This was the seed of the weeping willow. How did weeping willows make seeds naturally though if charms were needed to get the tears and make the seeds? Was this a variety of willow created by herbologists? That theory didn’t really fit with the fact that the tears were a recent discovery. After all, if you bred a magical hybrid tree to cry, you would know that it cried and that wouldn’t need discovering. Maybe the properties of the tears other than for use as seeds would be discovered, but you would have to know how to make the tree cry to make more seeds, and making the tree cry required knowing that the tree could cry. ”How does the weeping willow tree reproduce naturally without human intervention? Maybe it cries when it’s threatened or dying so it can reproduce?” It seemed logical that the tree would make baby trees when the tree was in danger of dying, because that would ensure that there would still be plenty of living weeping willows even if the parent tree were to unfortunately die. Isa didn’t like to think of plants dying because that was sad, but it was all part of the natural cycle of life. Plants needed to be able to reproduce on their own in order to keep the species alive. Succulents were great at that. You could take a cutting from a succulent, and the cutting would establish roots and form a whole new succulent. The succulent that the cutting had been taken from would naturally regrow too. Succulents were cool.
After making her first seed, Isa squeezed another small droplet out of her vial and used the drying charm on it to create a second seed. Professor Myers had said that they didn’t have to plant them, so Isa was going to save them. She knew she wanted to plant one at home for mum. Mum would love a tree that might have undiscovered magical properties. Maybe mum would even discover something new about the tree.
Isa dug around in her pockets a little bit to find one of her small envelopes that she always carried with her for collecting interesting seeds while she was out walking in nature. She pulled an empty one out, labeled it with the date and what plant the seeds were from, and slipped her two seeds into the envelope. Carefully, she placed the seed envelope back into her pocket. There, now she had two seeds ready to plant where she wanted to.
Once she was finished making and storing her seeds, Isa put the cork back in the vial and handed the vial to Professor Myers. ”Professor, what will you be doing with the leftover tears in the vials?” Maybe they would be used for making more trees, or for researching the magical properties and possible uses of the tears. Isa wanted her own weeping willow to experiment with, and she was planning on planting at least one of her seeds at home. For now she had no intent of leaving right away. Isa was staying to ask questions and plant nerd with Professor Myers.
Oh, what was going on with Emmeline? Someone being curled up in a ball like that was usually an indication of not being okay, especially in a lesson. Isa went over to Emmeline, sat down next to her best friend, and put an arm around Emmeline. She spoke softly, trying not to further upset Emmeline. ”Em? What are you upset about? it it the tree? I don’t like making it sad either, but this is how the tree makes seeds so there can be baby trees, and it’s important for the tree to do that so there can be more weeping willow trees. Want to come to the creatures barn with me and we can talk?” Hopefully the knowledge that the tears were how the tree reproduced would somewhat comfort Emmeline for the time being, and Isa knew how visiting the creatures always helped Emmeline feel better. Staying to ask Professor Myers more questions was completely out of the question when she had an upset friend to comfort. Not even plants were as important of friends. Isa valued her friends more than almost anything else except her family.
With his other hand he used a finger to poke a hole in the soil, big enough for the amber-seedling to get covered with the soil. "Do they need water, professor Myers?" he asked as he added some extra soil on top. You know....since it ...used to be water...
Oh! Paul nodded a lot. "Yes! They need water, of course. But they also need to be watered with at least one of the remaining tears." He smiled. "It's all very odd, I know."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oesed
Levi would have loved to say he regretted his input but he found his logic to be sound and merely smiled, a touch apologetically, at Professor Myers. Perhaps the man was right, after all--and if he wasn't about to correct him, either. "Once the tear has been, er, crystallized--can it be reversed? Go back to its original liquid form, Professor?" He wanted to know. For science.
Meanwhile, the MY-RO-RO business continued to happen. Upside down U's movements continued along with the incantation. It took several more times for tries for tears to come out, and Levi was quick to retrieve one. He squeezed it into his palm, a single one, before casting a hot air charm on it.
Paul shook his head at Levi's question. They had great questions. Paul loved a good question. "Nope. They cannot, unfortunately. I...don't know why." MAGIC? "Once they're amber, they cannot turn back into a liquid. No matter how much you try." Paul held his own amber seedling in the palm of his hand. Perhaps he'd plant one right here on the grounds.
[SPOILER=Skylar]
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoenixRising
"Professor? You said one only one drop onto our hand and I was just curious, would it be detrimental to have more than that harden into amber? Would it not harden?"
ANOTHER GREAT QUESTION. "Nope. The seedling would just be slightly bigger. But considering you need the leftover tears, at least one, to drop atop the soil once you've planted your amber seedling, you should try not to use more than one or two FOR the seedling." He would clarify this more in a second so EVERYONE heard.
SPOILER!!: all of Isa's questions lol
Quote:
Originally Posted by griffin
THE TEARS WERE SEEDS! THIS WAS HOW THE TREE REPRODUCED! It all made sense now why the tree cried! So the tears hardened into amber? Weird. ”How does it turn into amber? I thought amber was crystalized resin?” These tears didn’t have the consistency of resin. Seemed to fit with the mythical origin story, which was just that, a myth, but didn’t make sense with what she knew amber to be. Whatever, what she needed to know was that drying the tears made a seed.
Uncorking her vial, Isa carefully squeezed out a drop of the liquid inside into her hand. Satisfied with the droplet in her hand, Isa cast a drying charm on the tear droplet and watched as it hardened into amber. This was the seed of the weeping willow. How did weeping willows make seeds naturally though if charms were needed to get the tears and make the seeds? Was this a variety of willow created by herbologists? That theory didn’t really fit with the fact that the tears were a recent discovery. After all, if you bred a magical hybrid tree to cry, you would know that it cried and that wouldn’t need discovering. Maybe the properties of the tears other than for use as seeds would be discovered, but you would have to know how to make the tree cry to make more seeds, and making the tree cry required knowing that the tree could cry. ”How does the weeping willow tree reproduce naturally without human intervention? Maybe it cries when it’s threatened or dying so it can reproduce?” It seemed logical that the tree would make baby trees when the tree was in danger of dying, because that would ensure that there would still be plenty of living weeping willows even if the parent tree were to unfortunately die. Isa didn’t like to think of plants dying because that was sad, but it was all part of the natural cycle of life. Plants needed to be able to reproduce on their own in order to keep the species alive. Succulents were great at that. You could take a cutting from a succulent, and the cutting would establish roots and form a whole new succulent. The succulent that the cutting had been taken from would naturally regrow too. Succulents were cool.
After making her first seed, Isa squeezed another small droplet out of her vial and used the drying charm on it to create a second seed. Professor Myers had said that they didn’t have to plant them, so Isa was going to save them. She knew she wanted to plant one at home for mum. Mum would love a tree that might have undiscovered magical properties. Maybe mum would even discover something new about the tree.
Isa dug around in her pockets a little bit to find one of her small envelopes that she always carried with her for collecting interesting seeds while she was out walking in nature. She pulled an empty one out, labeled it with the date and what plant the seeds were from, and slipped her two seeds into the envelope. Carefully, she placed the seed envelope back into her pocket. There, now she had two seeds ready to plant where she wanted to.
Once she was finished making and storing her seeds, Isa put the cork back in the vial and handed the vial to Professor Myers. ”Professor, what will you be doing with the leftover tears in the vials?” Maybe they would be used for making more trees, or for researching the magical properties and possible uses of the tears. Isa wanted her own weeping willow to experiment with, and she was planning on planting at least one of her seeds at home. For now she had no intent of leaving right away. Isa was staying to ask questions and plant nerd with Professor Myers.
Oh, what was going on with Emmeline? Someone being curled up in a ball like that was usually an indication of not being okay, especially in a lesson. Isa went over to Emmeline, sat down next to her best friend, and put an arm around Emmeline. She spoke softly, trying not to further upset Emmeline. ”Em? What are you upset about? it it the tree? I don’t like making it sad either, but this is how the tree makes seeds so there can be baby trees, and it’s important for the tree to do that so there can be more weeping willow trees. Want to come to the creatures barn with me and we can talk?” Hopefully the knowledge that the tears were how the tree reproduced would somewhat comfort Emmeline for the time being, and Isa knew how visiting the creatures always helped Emmeline feel better. Staying to ask Professor Myers more questions was completely out of the question when she had an upset friend to comfort. Not even plants were as important of friends. Isa valued her friends more than almost anything else except her family.
LOOOLLL. Paul laughed at Isa's question. "Of course amber is just that...but this tree already doesn't follow, realistically, how a tree should behave, doesn't it? It cries. I wouldn't expect the amber thing to really make scientific sense, m'dear." Sometimes magic was just that. Magic.
"They have been reproducing fine all by themselves for hundreds of years now. I'm sure they cry on their own...but no one really knows the answer to that as of yet." And it was intriguing. "The leftover tears, I'll be keeping for the time being. I don't quite know what I want to do with them yet." He grinned. Maybe he'd plant an army of the trees back in Tuscany, at the vineyard. He was SURE Milton wouldn't mind at ALL.
"Just a few more minutes everyone!"
__________________
"You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough."
Roman Gellar ● 1st Year ● Slytherin
Teapot Occamy| gryphons&giraffes&goats,OH MY | chaser of the truth | flutiful❧
In response to Professor Myers telling her about the amber not making scientific sense, Isa giggled. Of course she couldn’t expect magical tears from a crying tree to make sense. After all, this tree defied most of the assumed laws about the normal behaviors of trees. Before this lesson she never would have thought that trees could cry actual tears when they were sad, and here she was collecting tears from a crying tree. It also didn’t make sense that amber could grow into a tree. ”Well, magic often doesn’t make sense. How is amber supposed to be able to put out roots and grow into a tree?” Isa was curious about the tree, but she knew that some things just wouldn’t make sense because magic was like that sometimes. There were a lot of things about magic that didn’t make sense, but the third year Hufflepuff was not very concerned about that. She just wanted to think about plants right now. This lesson was one of the most interesting herbology lessons ever, and she had so many thoughts about the weeping willow tree! Collecting tears from a tree wasn’t everyone’s idea of fun, but Isa loved it. The part of the lesson that she found the most intriguing, however, was the discussion on the known and the unknown facts about the weeping willow.
This whole weeping willow reproduction thing was very interesting. The trees had been reproducing on their own for hundreds of years as Professor Myers had said, but no one knew how. That would be a very interesting thing to research. Isa imagined herself researching new species of plants and plants that not much was known about, discovering how the tree reproduced naturally and investigating the properties and uses of the weeping willow tears. If somebody else hadn’t discovered all of that already, of course. She wanted to study herbology in university, and maybe she would get a chance there to do interesting plant research. Imagine that! Her, making cool discoveries about plants! That would be so amazing!
Oh, so they needed a tear drop to put on the soil after planting the amber seed? Isa was intrigued and confused by that at the same time. ”What does the tear drop on the soil do? Is it needed for the seed to germinate?” Maybe it helped the seed germinate or something? ”Would you mind if I keep some of the tears, for planting the seeds?” Because apparently they needed those in order to plant the seeds, and Professor Myers had just collected everyone’s tear vials. How were they supposed to plant the seeds and successfully grow them without the extra tears to put on the soil? If he was giving them seeds to plant, he really should have let them keep enough tears to actually plant the seeds and water them with a drop of the tears.
Herbology Lesson II - The Weeping Willow Tree 
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