Nigella damascena, love-in-a-mist,
The specific epithet damascena relates to Damascus in Syria.
Description
It grows to tall, with pinnately divided, thread-like, alternate
leaf. The
, blooming in early summer, are most commonly different shades of blue, but can be white, pink, or pale purple, with 5 to 25
. The actual
are located at the base of the stamens and are minute and clawed. The sepals are the only colored part of the
perianth. The four to five
of the compound
pistil have each an erect
carpel.
The fruit is a large and inflated capsule, growing from a compound ovary, and is composed of several united follicles, each containing numerous . This is rather exceptional for a member of the buttercup family. The capsule becomes brown in late summer. The plant self-seeds, growing on the same spot year after year.
Cultivation
This easily grown plant has been a familiar subject in English
since Elizabethan times, admired for its ferny foliage, spiky flowers and bulbous seed-heads. It is now widely cultivated throughout the
temperateness world, and numerous
cultivars have been developed for garden use. 'Persian Jewels' is a mixture of white, pink, lavender and blue flowers. 'Persian Rose' is pale pink. Other
are 'Albion', 'Blue Midget', 'Cambridge Blue', 'Mulberry Rose', and 'Oxford Blue'. 'Dwarf Moody Blue' is around high. The pale blue ‘Miss Jekyll’
and the double white-flowered 'Miss Jekyll Alba' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Related species
The related
Nigella sativa (and not
N. damascena) is the source of the spice variously known as nigella,
kalonji or black cumin.
Toxicity
Damascenine is a toxic
alkaloid found in
Nigella damascena seed.
However, an in vivo study in mice and in vitro assessment on human cell lines has not shown any toxicity.
