WARNING! SPOILERS!

I have been unsuccessfully trying to find Mandrake and Nightshade using the information supplied by an NPC in the game. I have gone to the spots indicated (which turn out to be at the same spots as in Ultima 4), stood next to the targeted spots, then waited for the double new moons. Just before 12 midnight, I started spamming "Search" in the direction toward the target spot. Found nothing. What am I missing?

I believe you need to be right on top of the square, not next to it.

Also, if you're looking for Nightshade, I believe the square of forest you need to search is denser than the surrounding squares. (That's a rather nice cue that wasn't in Ultima 4.)

If you are on top of the square, which direction do you search in?

I don't remember specifying a direction to search in/

In Ultima 5 you need to specify a direction in which to search. That's why I was standing next to, and not directly on, the square.

I'm unsure what's going on in your game. I loaded a game near Minoc, went over to the patch of swamp, waited until midnight (it didn't need to be double new moons) and I was able to grab Mandrake root by searching the patch of swamp by standing next to it, and then having my Avatar search in the direction of the swamp.

Are you sure it's midnight? One moon needs to be on the left, and the other on the right, and the left moon has to have JUST changed to the next phase when you hit the Spacebar to advance time with [Pass].

Although, searching for Mandrake/Nightshade in Ultima V isn't as important as it was in Ultima IV, since you can just purchase them from vendors in bulk, which is far more efficient than waiting for midnight each and every night and grabbing 2-7 sprigs once every evening.

So, it can be midnight ANY night? I didn't realize that and always waited for the double new moons. Also, the visual cue of the moons having just changed is a lot easier than frantically checking the pocket watch and then making a guess as to how many times to press SPACE to get to midnight. Thanks for the info.

Good news! When I followed our suggestion about searching just when the moon change resulted in success!

Woot! Happy to hear you were able to get it to work!