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Tordylium apulum
Mediterranean hartwort (Tordylium apulum) is a small annual herb of the carrot family, native to Europe and western Asia, that grows as a weed on waste ground and by roadsides. It grows easily from seed in open, sunny sites with ordinary soil.
Tordylium apulum, commonly known as the Mediterranean hartwort, is an annual forb or herb. It is classified within the family Apiaceae, the carrot family. It is native to Europe and Western Asia, but has been introduced to the United States, where it is now found only in Arizona. This plant's seeds are suggested as the plant model used for the famous gold "Malia Pendant", a jewel of high quality gold-smithery of the Minoan times now on display at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
Mediterranean hartwort is found as a weed of cultivation, on waste land, and by waysides. The plant is equally at home in sandy, loamy and clay soils. Hartworts may be found growing on acid, neutral and basic soils, but will not thrive in shade.
The leaves of the plant are edible and are used as a potherb and salad vegetable in Greece. In Italy it is used as a condiment. The essential oil composition of aerial parts of Tordylium apulum L. from Italy was analyzed. Sixty-seven compounds were identified representing 96.5% of the oil. The most abundant compounds were (E)-β-ocimene (17.3), α-humulene (11.4%) and octyl octanoate (8.8%). Essential oil from aerial parts of T. apulum from Greece was reported to have α-humulene (28.7%) and octyl hexanoate (11.7%) as the main constituents. There are no known medicinal uses for this plant.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Tordylium apulum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
