by Maryanne Hannan
This miracle plant was eaten into extinction 2,000 years ago—or was it? Silphion cured diseases and made food tasty, but Emperor Nero allegedly consumed the last stalk. Now, a Turkish researcher thinks he’s found a botanical survivor. Photo: Professor Mahmut Miski cups a handful of flowering Ferula drudeana near Mount Hasan in central Turkey. The scholar of plant medicine believes the species is silphion. —National Geographic, September 23, 2022
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Oh you slice of yesteryear Stalk of ferula drudeana Last seen dribbling down Nero’s chin, he of Roman Emperor fame, wildly Pursuing immortality To enhance his lifetime Omnipotence appointment. Now a thousand miles away And two thousand years later, You sway alone and majestic In a field, high above your Gnarly root, insects feasting On your pearly sap. And loving it, they say. Could it be you, and if so, Where have you been All this time? When we too Needed your balm, the way You cure baldness, epilepsy, Maybe even cancer. When We too needed to season Our lentils, our fish sauce. Look deep, to the earth, You say, the hidden fields, To the dirt, the goats, The lowliest. What was lost, now found? More like, you say What’s old is ever new-ing.
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A retired Latin teacher, Maryanne Hannan lives in upstate New York and has been writing poetry and watching the world evolve for many decades.
I've heard that it was also somehow used as a contraceptive and Ephesus did quite a trade in it.