Hacker News Reader

Comment by rwmj | Hacker News Reader

Contains Silphium, a plant which was a common ingredient in the classical world, but now no one knows exactly what it was. (The leading theory is that it's a real plant that went extinct.) There's much about that world that we don't really know.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20170907-the-mystery-of...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium

View on HN

Wow, thanks for sharing. That is very cool, so much history in that part of the world. I go to Crete every other year, coasting along its southern side, many ruins of "lost" harbour towns which supposedly were large trade hubs in the mediterranean. I wonder if Silphium played a large role in their economies.

One of the great archeological finds of this decade(https://www.livescience.com/ancient-odeon-discovered-crete) was discovered in Lissus(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissus_(Crete)) in 2022. A great hike from Sougia for those interested, the place truly is beautiful.

I've looked into this a lot and I'd say the actual leading theory is that it's an infertile hybrid of two Ferula species that grew mostly in African Mediterranean. It likely went extinct from its overharvest and inability to reproduce through seeds.

The Ferula genus contains fennel and asafoetida (aka hing). Ferula drudeana is suspected to be one of the species that was hybridized.

My personal cold take is that it's a forgotten aloe species/hybrid

-has weird succulent morphology as depicted in coinage

Eg https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/75379-Aloe-maculata

-species that grow well (only) in the relevant regions in North Africa

-sap much less sulfurous than hing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloin

-Pliny mentions silphium as laxative/purgative

-Most of all, explains why the leading theory is still so unsatisfactory

>WIKI> The plant may also have functioned as a contraceptive and abortifacient.

I believe this would have been a good reason for its extinction (i.e. over-use).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com