Powaka Wood

• Type: Wand Wood, Magical Plant
• Notable Wands: Isolt Sayre's first wand
• Origin: Native to North America (Pottermore)

Powaka is a type of wand wood derived from a prickly bush native to North America (Pottermore). The wood itself is known to be poisonous (Pottermore). After the wand of Isolt Sayre, made from Powaka wood, was buried on the grounds of Ilvermorny, it grew into a unique type of snakewood tree that could not be pruned or killed (Pottermore).

As a wand wood, Powaka is known to be poisonous and is highly sought after by Dark Wizards (Pottermore). It is described as being particularly suited to Parselmouths or those descended from the line of Salazar Slytherin (Pottermore). Its poisonous nature likely contributes to its affinity with powerful, and often dark, magic (Pottermore). When Isolt Sayre's Powaka wand was buried, it grew into a unique snakewood tree. The leaves of this tree were discovered to have powerful medicinal and healing properties (Pottermore).

The most notable use of Powaka wood is in the first wand of Ilvermorny founder Isolt Sayre (Pottermore). As a child in Ireland, she created a rudimentary wand from a branch of a Powaka bush that her aunt, Gormlaith Gaunt, had brought back from her travels (Pottermore). This wand had a core of Horned Serpent horn, from a magical creature Isolt had befriended in America (Pottermore). After Gormlaith Gaunt attacked Ilvermorny, Isolt and her husband James Steward determined the wand was too dangerous to keep. It had an affinity for Dark Magic and was connected to Salazar Slytherin's own wand through the Horned Serpent horn core, which contained a sliver of basilisk horn (Pottermore). They buried it on the Ilvermorny grounds, where it grew into the un-prunable and magical snakewood tree (Pottermore). This tree resisted all attempts to prune or kill it, serving as a testament to the powerful magic embedded within the original wand (Pottermore).

Powaka wood is not mentioned in the original seven Harry Potter novels. Its significance is confined to the expanded universe lore published on Pottermore (now Wizarding World), where it plays a crucial role in the backstory of the North American school of magic, Ilvermorny, and its founder, Isolt Sayre.

All known information about Powaka wood comes from the short story Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, written by J.K. Rowling and published on the Pottermore website in 2016.