Tordylium


Tordylium is a genus of flowering plants in the carrot family. Members of the genus are known as hartworts.

Description

Tordylium species are annuals or biennials, covered in long hairs. Their stems may be hollow or almost solid. The basal leaves are more-or-less undivided, and have usually disappeared when the plant flowers. The stem leaves are once pinnate. The flowers have persistent sepals and white petals, with those on one side much longer than the other. The fruits are about as long as they are wide. Their side ridges have whitish wings.

Taxonomy

Species assigned to the genus were first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in Species Plantarum.

Species

The number of species in the genus varies widely between sources. Ainsworthia and Synelcosciadium were included in Tordylium by El-Aisawi & Jury. Gömürgen et al. say there are 17 species in Turkey alone., The Plant List accepts only six species in total, keeping Ainsworthia and Synelcosciadium separate:
Tordylium apulum, the Mediterranean hartwort or Roman pimpernel, is used as a vegetable in Greece and as a flavouring in Italy.
Tordylium officinale, the Officinal or Cretan Hartwort , bears fruit formerly used as an emmenagogue, and the plant has formed one of the ingredients of Theriac, a preparation believed to be an antidote to snake and other venoms. Courchet further states of the genus Tordylium in general that the various species bear fruits that - like those of many other Umbellifers - are aromatic and carminative, but that those of Tordylium are seldom used.