Silphium

Did You Know?

• Silphium was used as a contraceptive, aphrodisiac, and abortifacient.
• In Italian military heraldry, 'silphium couped or of Cyrenaica' is granted to units that distinguished themselves in the Western Desert Campaign in North Africa during World War II.
• The plant appears in Lindsey Davis's 1998 historical crime novel Two for the Lions.

Identity and extinction

The identity of silphium remains unresolved, as no surviving sample exists for genetic analysis. It is generally thought to belong to the genera Ferula or Thapsia, either as an extinct or living species. Candidates include Ferula tingitana, Ferula narthex, Ferula drudeana, Thapsia gummifera, and Thapsia garganica. Ferula drudeana, endemic to Turkey, is considered a strong match due to shared features such as plant morphology, yellow foliage in mature plants, slow growth, resistance to cultivation from seed, and phytochemistry producing an aromatic gum resin similar to that described for silphium.

However, this species originates from the southern Caspian Sea region, with no known link to eastern Libya, and is highly imperiled. Theophrastus described silphium as having thick roots covered in black bark, a hollow stalk like fennel, and golden leaves resembling celery. Its disappearance may be the first recorded extinction of a species. The cause is uncertain; overgrazing and overharvesting have long been cited, but recent research points to desertification in ancient Cyrenaica as the primary driver.

Another theory holds that Roman provincial governors overfarmed the plant, depleting the soil. Theophrastus noted that the type called silphium could not be cultivated, suggesting sensitivity to soil chemistry.

Culinary uses

Silphium was used in Graeco-Roman cooking, including recipes in Apicius. Its use in North Africa was extensive, as reflected in a fourth-century BC play by Antiphanes where a character lists silphium stalks, leaves, and juice alongside horses and chariots as things of Cyrenaica. Long after its claimed extinction, silphium continued to appear in lists of aromatics, with a late mention in the Brevis pimentorum que in domo esse debeant by Vinidarius, an excerpt of Apicius surviving in an eighth-century uncial manuscript.

Hieroglyphs and symbols for silphium

The Minoans likely used silphium as the visual reference for the hieroglyph psi, meaning 'plant', which resembles a central shoot flanked by two stalks. This glyph developed into the modern Greek letter psi (Ψ). Egyptian hieroglyphs for Libyan silphium have been documented as a balm ingredient that produces a sap or resin, appearing similar to the hieroglyph for branch. Some speculation links silphium to the traditional heart shape (♥); silver coins from Cyrene from the 6th to 5th centuries BCE bear a similar design, understood to represent its seed or fruit. Some plants in the family Apiaceae have heart-shaped indehiscent mericarps. Contemporary writings connect silphium to sexuality and love, as in Pausanias' Description of Greece and Catullus 7.