Herbs with Mechanics

Caledan

Caledan is a bunch-forming tuberous herb with long, flat, fibrous leaves, small yellow star-shaped flowers at ground level, and an elongated root stock bearing several fleshy roots. Its most distinctive quality is the unusual arrangement of its leaves, in that they strongly resemble a pleated skirt, and will wave slowly in even quite gentle breezes.

Its leaf fibers are used to make nets, hammocks, and the like, and the fruit is edible. Its seeds are black with deep wavy grooves.

It grows best in light shade, with consistently damp soil; it is tolerant of other light conditions, but not of arid environments. It can thrive indoors if tended appropriately. It is most readily propagated by dividing its root stock and replanting. Given the flowers' proximity to the ground, it has been speculated that its principal pollinator is a small rodent-like marsupial, but there is no hard evidence of this.

Comfyr

Comfyr (aka turkey-tree), is a deciduous tree native to the eastern and northeastern reaches of the empire. It has leathery, feathery leaves, golden, clumped flowers, plentiful small black fruit, twisting branches, and thick, corky bark. It is resistant to drought and insects, and it can thrive in a variety of soils.

The bark has been used to produce a yellow dye and is also of significant use to the herbalist. Medicinally, comfyr bark and the oil of the comfyr fruit are both of value.

Cultivation of comfyr trees is entirely unnecessary, as comfyrs are real forest thugs. One comfyr tree in a forest of a thousand oak will be a thousand comfyr and one oak within sixty years.

Turmeric

Turmeric is a perennial herb with creeping rootstalks. It is indigenous to the Strand and needs hot climate and substantial rain to flourish. It is collected yearly for its creeping rootstalks, most of which are used, while the saved rootstocks are replanted for the next year.

The rootstocks are stewed for many hours and then desiccated in herbalist furnaces, then pulverized into a rich golden powder with broad culinary and dyeing use, although turmeric makes an inadequate cloth dyestuff as it gradually evanesces when exposed to sunlight. As a food coloring agent, however, it is ideal. It has a distinct earthy, slightly acrid, slightly piquant flavor.

The city of Twelve Culverts is the world's most prominent source and most significant market for turmeric. As a result Twelve Culverts is also called "Xanthous City" or "Suffusion of Yellow".