Ferula

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Ferula

Ferula communis

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Apiales
Family:	Apiaceae
Genus:	Ferula L.

Species

See text.

Ferula is a genus of about 170 species of flowering plants in the family Apiaceae, native to the Mediterranean region east to central Asia, mostly growing in arid climates. They are herbaceous perennial plants growing to 1-4 m tall, with stout, hollow, somewhat succulent stems. The leaves are tripinnate or even more finely divided, with a stout basal sheath clasping the stem. The flowers are yellow, produced in large umbels.

Ferula foetida

[edit] Selected species

Ferula assafoetida - Asafoetida
Ferula caspica
Ferula communis - Giant fennel
Ferula conocaula
Ferula foetida
Ferula gummosa, syn. galbaniflua - Galbanum
Ferula karelinii
Ferula linkii
Ferula longifolia
Ferula marmarica
Ferula moschata, syn. sumbul - Muskroot
Ferula narthex - Ferula
Ferula orientalis
Ferula persica
Ferula schair
Ferula szowitziana
Ferula tingitiana
The Roman spice silphium probably came from a now extinct species of Ferula.

[edit] Uses

The gummy resin of many species of Ferula is used for medical or culinary purposes:

Ferula assafoetida is used to make the spice asafoetida, or hing

Ferula gummosa makes galbanum

Ferula persica makes sagapenum

Ferula moschata makes sumbul

Ferula tingitana makes "African Ammoniacum"

Silphium was used to make laserpicium

The Romans called the hollow light rod made from this plant a ferula (compare also fasces, judicial birches). Such rods were used for walking sticks, splints, for stirring boiling liquids, and for corporal punishment.

The ferula also shows up in mythological contexts. The main shaft of a thyrsus was traditionally made from this plant, and Prometheus smuggled fire to humanity by hiding it in a ferula as well.

Women in Central Asia as well as a small number in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina use these to induce abortion in first trimester.