Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Ranunculales > Ranunculaceae > Nigella > Nigella sativa

Nigella sativa (black cumin)

Synonyms: Nigella cretica; Nigella indica; Nigella truncata

Wikipedia Abstract

Nigella sativa (black-caraway, also known as nigella or kalonji), often called black cumin, is an annual flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae, native to south and southwest Asia. Nigella sativa grows to 20–30 cm (7.9–11.8 in) tall, with finely divided, linear (but not thread-like) leaves. The flowers are delicate, and usually colored pale blue and white, with five to ten petals.
View Wikipedia Record: Nigella sativa

Infraspecies

Nigella sativa var. hispidula
Nigella sativa var. sativa

Attributes

Edible [1]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [1]  Hermaphrodite
Lifespan [1]  Annual
Pollinators [1]  Bees
Scent [1]  The seed is deliciously aromatic with a nutmeg scent;
Structure [2]  Herb
Usage [1]  The aromatic seed contains about 1.5% essential oil; It is placed amongst clothes etc to repel moths; The seeds can also be put in muslin bags and hung near a fire when they will fill the room with their delicious scent; They need to be changed about every three weeks; The seed contains 35% of a fatty oil;
Height [1]  14 inches (0.35 m)
Width [1]  8 inches (0.2 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Nigella sativa

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Palava Protected Landscape Area V   Czech Republic  

Predators

Corcyra cephalonica (Rice moth)[3]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 2Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 3HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0