Potential happy post-extinction post! The drawing you see here is artist Nirupa Rao’s rendition of a plant that some believe to be an extremely rare survivor of Silphium (also known as silphion), an Ancient Mediterranean species so valued that it was hunted to extinction — but maybe, believe some plant historians, it’s been rediscovered.
I have written before about Silphium, an extremely valued trade commodity for Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, who had a myriad of uses for the plant: medicinal, as birth control, and for culinary purposes.
Mahmut Miski, a historian of plants and pharmacology, discovered in the Cappadocia region of modern Turkey a rare plant that matches up so far with many of Silphium’s characteristics. Recently given the scientific name Ferula drudeana, you can see a photo of it growing in the wild on the third slide. Even after actively trying to cultivate F. drudeana for several years, there are only 600 known specimens. And this is indeed because, like the ginseng plant which has such similar-root systems, the plant is extremely picky and difficult (but not impossible) to grow outside of wild propagation.
The OG Silphium was said to have grown only in a small region in modern Libya, but Miski argues that the Ancients, who we know did attempt to cultivate Silphium, may have brought seeds across the Mediterranean that germinated unbeknownst to all the foragers of the treasured plant. In historical sources, Silphium appears with its own hieroglyph, and on Roman coins (see second slide), and in written sources. But by the end of the first century CE it was disappearing. The final extant mention of the plant is in a letter from 406 by a bishop from Cyrene in modern Libya.
F. drudeana (it’s in the parsley family) looks like ancient descriptions of Silphium — and its growing patterns, smell, and taste all match up with the ancient plant’s. More study of the medicinal properties would also help to positively identify it. But the Holy Grail would be to find an ancient seed in as-yet-to-be identified Ancient remains with intact DNA. But nonetheless, this is a really cool find.
Sources: National Geographic, “This miracle plant was eaten into extinction 2,000 years ago — or was it?” Taras Grescoe, Sept 23, 2022. Paper by Mahmut Miski published in Plants 10 (1): 102, 2021, Jan 6.
