Pepper-saxifrage
| Silaum silaus | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Asterids |
| Order: | Apiales |
| Family: | Apiaceae |
| Genus: | Silaum |
| Species: | S. silaus |
| Binomial name | |
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Silaum silaus (L.) Schinz & Thell. |
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| Synonyms | |
Silaum silaus, commonly known as pepper-saxifrage, is a perennial plant in the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) (the carrot family) found across south-eastern, Central and Western Europe, including the British Isles. It grows in damp grasslands on neutral soils.
Silaum silaus was one of the many species described by Carl Linnaeus in Volume I of the 1753 edition of his Species Plantarum as Peucedanum silaus. It was given its current binomial name in 1915 by Swiss botanists Hans Schinz and Albert Thellung in 1915.
With regards to the etymology, of the binomial, the etymology of Silaum is uncertain, though it may refer to the mountainous plateau La Sila in southern Italy. Another possible explanation is that Silaum may be derived from the yellow ochre - related to the colour of the plant's flowers.Silaus is an old generic name used by Pliny.
Silaum silaus bears the common name pepper-saxifrage (with or without hyphenation) – despite being neither a saxifrage nor peppery in taste.
Silaum silaus is an erect, glabrous umbellifer with woody, stout and cylindrical tap roots, which are hot and aromatic.S. silaus has dark grey or black petioles at the top; petiole remains are found at the bottom of the stem, which is solid and . Its umbels are 2–6 cm in diameter, are or axillary, and compound, with 4 to 15 angled rays of 1–3 cm; the peduncle is larger than the rays, and both are . The flowers are mostly hermaphroditic.
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