''Podonosma orientalis'', commonly known as golden drop, is a species of flowering plant resembling a low-lying shrub of the
Boraginaceae
Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-not family, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees and herbs in 146, to 156 genera with a worldwide distribution.
The APG IV system from 2016 classifies the Boraginaceae as single family of the order ...
family, first described by
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
. It is endemic to
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, the Eastern Mediterranean, namely, Syria, Lebanon, Israel (Palestine), and stretching as far as the woodlands and desert steppes of Jordan, Iraq, and in Western and Southern Iran. In Israel it is a regular feature in the Judean and Samaritan deserts, as also on
Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel ( he, הַר הַכַּרְמֶל, Har haKarmel; ar, جبل الكرمل, Jabal al-Karmil), also known in Arabic as Mount Mar Elias ( ar, link=no, جبل مار إلياس, Jabal Mār Ilyās, lit=Mount Saint Elias/Elijah), is a c ...
, where it is very common.
Description
The
simple leaves and stems of plant are entirely covered in green or whitish hairs, and sheds its foliage between August and October. Yellow to white and light blue flowers of a corolla-cylindrical shape appear on the plant's stalk between February and June.
In Arabic, the species of plant is known by the name ''maṣīṣ'' ( ar, مصيص), whence its Hebrew name is also derived.
Habitat
Golden drop flourishes on hard rock outcrops, especially in
garrigue terrain. In
Wadi Khureitun
Wadi Khureitun or Nahal Tekoa is a wadi in a deep ravine in the Judaean Desert in the West Bank, west of the Dead Sea, springing near Tekoa.
Name
The Hebrew name, Nahal Tekoa ("Tekoa Stream"), and the English name used in some Christian contexts, ...
(Judea), it grows in small vertical cracks and holes alongside ''Sonchus suberosus'' and ''
Centaurea eryngioides'', while in
Wadi Qelt (Judea) it is found growing along the narrowest part of the chasm.
In Jordan, it is found in
Wadi Zerka Main (Moab) on the hard limestone.
Uses
The plant contains
saponin
Saponins (Latin "sapon", soap + "-in", one of), also selectively referred to as triterpene glycosides, are bitter-tasting usually toxic plant-derived organic chemicals that have a foamy quality when agitated in water. They are widely distributed ...
, a chemical substance which produces a soapy lather. Arabs in
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
would break off leaves and stems from the plant and form them into a wad for scouring pots and pans, or for burnishing copperware or silverware.
In Arab folk-medicine, macerated leaves of the plant, mixed with wheat flour, were placed on a heated
compress and applied to the head in order to relieve migraine headaches.
The plant's flowers are edible.
References
External links
Flowers In Israel -- ''Podonosma orientalis''*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q18599758
Flora of Jordan
Flora of Israel
Flora of Palestine (region)
Flora of Lebanon
Flora of Syria
Flora of Iran
Saponaceous plants
Boraginaceae
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus