Biblical plants: Poppy-Leaved Reichardia

Reichardia tingitana, Reichardia orientalis, Poppy-Leaved Reichardia, False sowthistle, Bitter herbs,

Hebrew: תמריר מרוקני, Arabic: خزام – نكد – لبين

Scientific name:   Reichardia tingitana (L.) Roth
Synonym name:   Reichardia orientalis (L.) Asch. & Schweinf.
Common name:   Poppy-Leaved Reichardia, False sowthistle, Bitter herbs
Hebrew name:   מרור) תמריר מרוקני)
Arabic name:   خزام – نكد – لبين
Plant Family:   Compositae (Asteraceae), מורכבים


Life form:   Annual
Stems:   Stems 4-35 cm, glabrous
Leaves:   Alternate, entire, dentate or serrate
Flowers:   Yellow
Fruits / pods:   Achenes 1.5-2.5 mm, 4- to 5-angled, all strongly transversly rugose
Flowering Period:   March, April, May
Habitat:   Shrub-steppes, Desert
Distribution:   Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Shrub-steppes, Deserts and extreme deserts
Chorotype:   Med – Irano-Turanian
Summer shedding:   Ephemeral


Derivation of the botanical name:

Reichardia, named for the German physician and botanist Johann Jacob Reichard (1743 – 1782).

tingitana, from Tingi, which is now Tangiers, North Africa.
orientalis, “eastern; oriental”; of the East.
The Hebrew name:מרור, maror, bitter herbs, from מרר (=to be bitter).

  • The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.
  • The standard author abbreviation Roth is used to indicate Albrecht Wilhelm Roth (1757 – 1834), a German physician and botanist.
  • The standard author abbreviation Asch. is used to indicate Paul Friedrich August Ascherson (1834 – 1913), a German botanist.
  • The standard author abbreviation Schweinf. is used to indicate Georg August Schweinfurth (1836 – 1925), a German botanist, traveller in East Central Africa and ethnologist.

The Reichardia and the Chicory are representives of the group of ‘Bitter Herbs’, Maror, מרור, that are eaten at the Passover Seder. Maror never appears in the singular but rather as the plural merorim מרורים – it means “bitter herbs”, from mar מר – “bitter”. Bible resources:

  1. Exodus 12:8
    That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.
  2. Numbers 9:11
    but they are to do it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
  3. Lamentations 3:15
    He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink.