Hartwort

Description

Tordylium maximum, known as hartwort, is an annual or biennial flowering plant in the carrot family (Apiaceae). Tordylium maximum is a hairy or bristly biennial or annual, growing to about 30–130 cm (1.0–4.3 ft) tall, with a hollow ridged stem that is usually branched. The lower leaves are pinnate, with two to five pairs of coarsely toothed leaflets. The upper leaves may be reduced to a single leaflet. The flowers are arranged in flat umbels, with 5–15 rays. Like other members of the genus Tordylium, the flowers are white, with the outer flowers having some much longer petals on the outer side of the umbel. The fruits are 5–8 mm (0.20–0.31 in) long. Tordylium maximum was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in Species Plantarum. Tordylium maximum is a species of south and south central Europe, probably not native in the northern parts of its range. It has been found in south-east England, but only in one location in south Essex since 1875. Tordylium is a genus of flowering plants in the carrot family (Apiaceae). Members of the genus are known as hartworts. 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. Species assigned to the genus were first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in Species Plantarum. 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 (also a Mediterranean species), bears fruit formerly used as an emmenagogue, and the plant (plant part unspecified) 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.