Lan Mandragoran, forkroot, and the presence of Mandrake in WOT

[Kalessin]

I'm into Sanderson territory now, on the first of the final trilogy, and I thought I should take the time to mention this, that the genus Mandragora and the plant Mandrake seems to hold quite a commanding position in the series.

To wit: Moiraine's Warder is Lan Mandragoran

The dreadful duo of Elayne and Nynaeve encounter a sedative plant extract called forkroot; the mandrake plant's root is forked in a humanoid shape that has all sorts of folklore connotations.

And other things that carry the mandrake resonance.

Has anyone else mentioned this? The series has been around for three decades; I expect someone even better versed in folklore would've mentioned it a lot earlier.

Anyway, here's some mandrake references I dug up on the InterWebs:

https://theherbprof.com/mandrake-the-enigmatic-medicinal-plant/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandragora_(genus)

https://www.britannica.com/plant/mandrake-Mandragora-genus

https://www.ancientherbswisdom.com/mandrake/

https://nightshadefamily.com/mandrake/

Any comments?

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

And Mandarb? 

 

But yes, Jordan tried to fit in as many real-world references as possible. Must admit I had never thought of the forkroot being specifically mandrake. 

 

But not sure what you mean about "commanding position". The references seem to be incidental and non-related. They are all meant to be reflections and twisted remembrances of the Wheel of Time - like all the Arthurian references aren't meant to illuminate those stories, but this one. And there are a lot of them, lol, sword in the stone, the Fisher King, all the names, Excaliber, etc. But I digress, none of that has anything to do with mandrake.