Recent searches

No recent searches

Search options

Not available on sunbeam.city.
sunbeam.city is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
Sunbeam City is a anticapitalist, antifascist solarpunk instance that is run collectively.

Administered by:

Server stats:

94
active users

sunbeam.city: AboutProfiles directoryPrivacy policy

Mastodon: AboutGet the appKeyboard shortcutsView source codev4.4.3

toxicodendron radicans

Silphium is an extinct plant which once grew in North Africa. In the ancient Mediterranean, it was used as a seasoning, perfume, medicine, aphrodisiac, and contraceptive.

It was the main trade item from the city of Cyrene in what is now Libya. Silphium was so important to Cyrenese trade, the plant was stamped onto their coins. Some of those coins show only the seed pods of the plant, which are heart shaped – and some people speculate this may be where the now ubiquitous heart symbol originally came from 💚

A stamped silver coin from around 300 BC, showing a silphium plant, with a thick central stem, branches to either side, and what looks like a rounded bunch of flowers at the top. It looks a lot like plants from the Apiaceae family, which includes angelica, fennel, carrots, and anise, which tend to be characterised by feathery leaves and rounded or umbrella-like flower bunches. The coin also has a few letters, the meaning of which I don't know, and a small crab. Being a coastal city, crab fishing was presumably also a big part of Cyrenese industry.
A much simpler silver coin, showing a single heart shape. The shape is actually a depiction of a silphium seed pod. Other plants in the Apiaceae family, such as common hogweed, also have heart shaped fruits.
·
66boosts·68favorites
About