Enchanted Plants

Varla A. Ventura is the author of several books, including Fairies, Pookas, and Changelings: A Complete Guide to the Wild and Wicked Enchanted Realm. As a lover of all things strange, Varla’s interests extend into the weirdness and magic of the plant kingdom. With a deep fascination for folklore and medicinal plants, she has been studying herbalism and botany for more than thirty years. Her plant knowledge comes from a combination of experimentation, formal classes in botany, and working in the horticultural industry for fifteen years. She ran a retail nursery in Portland, Oregon, as well as in San Francisco, California, and operated her own landscaping business for more than ten years. She is also the botanical brain behind Rotten Botany, a website dedicated to unusual plants. When not writing, she can be found wandering around the Minnesota woods and tending her poison garden.