Scorzonera judaica, commonly called Jordanian viper's grass,[1] Judean viper's grass,[1] or what was earlier known as salsify,[4] is a species of geophyte of the family Asteraceae. It is native to the eastern Mediterranean as far as Afghanistan.
| Scorzonera judaica | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Asterales |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Genus: | Scorzonera |
| Species: | S. judaica
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| Binomial name | |
| Scorzonera judaica | |
| Synonyms[1][2][3] | |
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List
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Description
editScorzonera judaica is a perennial herbaceous plant with a cylindrical rhizome ending in a globose tuber.[5][6] It bears a yellow inflorescence which, in Israel, blossoms between January and April. The petals are connate and tongue-shaped.
The plant lacks an inflorescence stem, and its flowers grow on long spikes (8–10 cm) that grow out of a rosette of elongated leaves.[7] The rosette of leaves grows immediately following the first rains.[7] The leaves are elongated, glossy and narrow, and covered with long white hairs that resemble spider webs (also the flower spikes and the involucral bracts of the inflorescence are covered with hairs).[7]
What is special about the plant are actually its seeds, which are hairy all over their surface and have a feathery tuft.[7] Upon ripening, the seeds disperse at once in the wind, and look like cotton balls dancing in the wind.[7]
Distribution
editScorzonera judaica has a broad geographical area, stretching from the sub-desert and steppe regions of the western part of the Irano-Turanian Region: Anatolia, Transcaucasus, Syria, Israel, Jordan, northern Egypt, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.[5] It is the only species of its genus that thrives in desert regions, with all other similar species growing in high mountainous elevations in the Middle East and in Asia.[7]
Uses
editThe taproots of this herb are edible and eaten raw when young, but when the plant grows older they require either cooking or roasting before they can be eaten.[7][8] The vegetable root (salsify) is harvested in the autumn of the first or second year. The roots, once dug up, were thoroughly rinsed, cut into sections and boiled in salt water for a few minutes, before being sautéed in a frying pan with a dash of olive oil.[citation needed] A palatable soup can be made from 20 roasted corms, flavored with spring onions, olive oil and a dash of salt.[9]
Scorzonera judaica is one of eighteen species of geophytes and hemicryptophytes that were found to be consumed by porcupines in the Negev Desert highlands.[10]
References
edit- ^ a b c The Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, Flora of Israel and adjacent areas / Scorzonera judaica, by Prof. Avinoam Danin and Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir
- ^ Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
- ^ MA Zaika, N. Kilian, K. Jones, AA Krinitsina, MV Nilova, AS Speranskaya, AP Sukhorukov (2020), "Scorzonera sensu lato (Asteraceae, Cichorieae) – taxonomic reassessment in the light of new molecular phylogenetic and carpological analyses". In: PhytoKeys, Volume 137, pp. 1–85. doi:10.3897/phytokeys.137.46544
- ^ At the start of the 20th-century, the genus Scorzonera was generally thought to be species of "wild salsify," as shown by the 1900 Library of Congress photograph of Scorzonera papposa from Palestine.
- ^ a b Léonard, J. (1983). "Contribution à la connaissance de la flore de l'Iran. V (Compositae: Heteroderis, Scorzonera, Taraxacum)". Bulletin du Jardin botanique National de Belgique / Bulletin van de Nationale Plantentuin van België (in French). 53 (3/4): 439. JSTOR 3667802.
- ^ Zohary & Feinbrun (1931), Plants of Palestine, An analytical key, Jerusalem, p. 399 OCLC 718138261
- ^ a b c d e f g Shmida, Avi (2005). MAPA's Dictionary of Plants and Flowers in Israel (in Hebrew). Tel-Aviv: MAPA. p. 154. OCLC 716569354.
- ^ Bailey, Clinton; Danin, Avinoam (1981). "Bedouin Plant Utilization in Sinai and the Negev". Economic Botany. 35 (2). Springer on behalf of New York Botanical Garden Press: 154. doi:10.1007/BF02858682. JSTOR 4254272. S2CID 27839209.
- ^ Ḳrispil, Nissim (1987). Amos Shapira (ed.). A Bag of Plants (The Useful Plants of Israel) (Yalḳuṭ ha-tsemaḥim) (in Hebrew). Vol. 2 (D.-Ḥ.). Jerusalem: Yara Publishing House. pp. 156–161. OCLC 21934597., s.v. הרדופנין
- ^ Gutterman, Yitzchak (1987). "Dynamics of Porcupine (Hystrix indica kerr) Diggings: Their Role in the Survival and Renewal of Geophytes and Hemicryptophytes in the Negev Desert Highlands". Israel Journal of Botany. 36 (3). doi:10.1080/0021213X.1987.10677077.
Additional reading
edit- Bader A., De Tommasi N., Cotugno R., Braca, A. (2011). "Phenolic compounds from the roots of Jordanian viper's grass, Scorzonera judaica", Journal of Natural Products 74(6), pp. 1421–1426
- Shelef, Oren; Guy, Ofer; Solowey, Elaine; Kam, Michael; Degen, A. Allen; Rachmilevitch, Shimon (2016). "Domestication of plants for sustainable agriculture in drylands: Experience from the Negev Desert". Arid Land Research and Management. 30 (2). Taylor & Francis Online: 209–228. doi:10.1080/15324982.2015.1089954.