Jaruleaf

Jaruleaf is a plant commonly found within the Isles of Jarul. It's a dark leaf, often mistaken for being burnt. It has very potent healing abilities when used by expert herbalists. The leaf itself has a sweet aroma when burned.
==Finding Jaruleaf==
Jaruleaf is often hard to come by, due to it's use in religious rituals, medical uses, and its elite value as it's often used to freshen the air of places. As such it's rare to find in the wild, and considered by many to be endangered.
The leaf is commonly found in open areas, such as plains, and occasionally found growing on mountains. Its often found in patches, varying from three to seven Jaruleaf plants. Jaruleaf also grows near ash or where previous burnings of some substance or another was once burnt, though conditions have to be near-perfect for a Jaruleaf to take root.
==Jaruleaf plant==
Jaruleaf is a mostly leafy plant, a typical plant has about thirty-five leafs, and in Spring time a single bud begins to grow, eventually flowering in the Fall. If the bud remains intact throughout the blooming process, when the Jaruleaf finally blooms, the flower it has will have several seeds located in the center of it.
The seeds are often only lightly held in place, so any strong wind will end up spreading the seeds. The seeds however have been known to take up to forty years before finally taking root and growing into a plant.
After a Jaruleaf flowers, the plant is more likely to become diseased, and die. Jaruleaves rarely last for more than a year, though there are a few cases of a Jaruleaf lasting for up to three years before dying. However, if harvested and quickly placed in salt to help the shriveling process and preserve it, it can last up to eight years before going bad or losing potency.
Jaruleaf also has some addictive properties, and should only be used in healing when absolutely necessary.
===Jaruleaf Flower===
The flower of the Jaruleaf has red petals, and a blue center. Due to the relatively bright colors, it's often hunted for in the Fall, before the major snows and frost set in. The flower is known to have a very sweet, salty aroma. Petals of the flower are often used for poisons and sometimes used as seasoning for fish dishes.
==Medicinal Uses==
To use Jaruleaf for medical purposes, the leaf must be first cooked down in a pan or pot with only a little water to prevent burning. When the leaf turns yellow, and has shrunk, it is done cooking. Once the leaf is done cooking, it must be mixed with a brine solution.
Brine solutions are often made by boiling salt in water, getting the water to a point where it can no longer dissolve any salt. Once the leaf is added to the brine solution, it needs to be boiled down. This next process is time consuming, as the solution must now be boiled down further into a rather crusty substance.
Once its all been boiled down, and stirred occasionally, the crusty substance needs to be scraped from the pot or pan and placed in a vial or small container. Then add some water, stir it well until it has a rather light gray complexion. Then proceed to serve. 
Though if stirred too long, so that it has a yellow-ish complexion should not be done. Once it has a yellow-ish complexion, or even slightly yellow, it has become a poison. If the mixture is even close to the poisonous state, it should be thrown out immediately, or else you risk killing the sick or ill person whom the mixture is being made for.
==Religious Uses==
Jaruleaf is also used for religious rituals. Though depending on the religion, the ritual differs. In many cases, it's simply mixed up with either some form of wax, or several other herbs, then burned to create a sweet-smelling aroma.
==Elite Value==
Not to be confused with social "elites". The elite value of Jaruleaf is caused by it's sweet aroma. It's most often bought or purchased not for medical, or religious uses, but to burn in homes or buildings to help clean the air and leave a feeling of freshness.
Though only the rich, and upper middle-classes tend to use Jaruleaf for such uses.
==Growing Jaruleaf==
It's been observed, many times, it is hard to grow Jaruleaf outside the Isles of Jarul. As to why, is unknown. Though a few cases exist of the leaf managing to survive once mixed with other leafy plant species, but also in such cases the leaf proved to be very little, if at all potent.
A challenge exists when attempting to plant farms of Jaruleaf, not due to the price of seeds, but due to the conditions the seeds need. The seeds often take root only when a very specific mixture of moisture is in the air, and when the temperature and season is right. The correct season is believed to be summer, but many observations have indicated the correct season is winter.
Jaruleaf has been observed to lose potency when domesticated and not allowed to enter it's natural abnormal routine of life and death. This makes any attempts of farming the leaf tedious.
===Farming Jaruleaf===
To farm the leaf, the land must be left natural, or mostly natural, simply leave the desired portion of farm untouched for a dozen years before attempting to plant. Then once the land is overgrown, yet natural, place the seeds of Jaruleaf on the soil, or drop them from your hand. 
You must then watch the portion if you want the Jaruleaf to take root, as many animals have been observed to eat any Jaruleaf seeds they find. Keeping the portion fenced off will likely work. Though due to the nature of the plant, there is no guarantee the seed will take root in your lifetime. Jaruleaf often takes root in the middle of winter.
Once the Jaruleaf finally takes root, it needs to be slightly tended to. ensure it has enough light from the midday sun, and gets just enough water if it's a dry season. It will take a few months before the plant produces any leaves which can be harvested.
When Spring arrives, several leaves can be harvested, but make sure to leave the flower bud intact, as removal of the bud kills the plant. As the next few months pass, the plant will put out many leaves, on average from Spring to Fall when the flowers bloom, forty to seventy leaves can be harvested, though leaves are often small, no bigger than the palm of a human's hand.
Once the flower blooms, it's ideal to quickly harvest any seeds while the chance exists. Once a Jaruleaf plant dies, give the land it grew on half a dozen years before planting a second crop. Otherwise you risk domesticating the plant and overall weakening the potency of it.
In the rare cases a plant lives longer than a year, the leaf harvests will be greater than the previous year. In one case where a Jaruleaf lived three years, a total of one-hundred leaves were harvested in a single go. In total the plant had produced four-hundred leaves throughout its life.
==Jaruleaf History==
The Jaruleaf got it's name because of the Isles of Jarul and that it grows best on the Isles. It was first discovered by the Navishk, whom have used the herb for tribal-religious and medicinal uses. The Navishk passed the secrets of the leaf to a merchant who had fallen off a cliff and happened to be seen falling by a Navishk hunting party. The merchant was brought back to the Navishk camp, and treated by the shaman.
The merchant found he felt good after just a few days of being under the care of the shaman. He asked the shaman about the methods and the shaman showed the him a sketch of the plant painted on a piece of leather. The merchant had seen much of the plant on his adventures, and once he was fully healed after a few weeks, departed, thanking the Navishk for their care and leaving with them some designs he had bought of a machine called a "ballistae".
The merchant told all he could of the leaf, and it's healing properties, immediately the poor and misfortunate farmed all the Jaruleaf they could find. As such the Jaruleaf immediately became rare, once very common across the Isles of Jarul, but only after a few months becoming one of the most rare flora in the known world.
Category:New Voldrania Category:Flora