Isrel wildflowers: Ciliate Love-In-A-Mist

Nigella ciliaris, Ciliate Love-In-A-Mist,
Hebrew: קצח ריסני, Arabic: كمون اسود

Scientific name:   Nigella ciliaris DC.
Common name:   Ciliate Love-In-A-Mist
Hebrew name:   קצח ריסני
Arabic name:   كمون اسود “kamun aswad”
Family:   Ranunculaceae, נוריתיים


Life form:   Therophyte, annual
Stems:   25-35 cm high
Leaves:   Alternate, dissected
Inflorescence:   Inflorescences terminal or axillary, flowers solitary
Flowers:   Yellow hairy sepals 5, petaloid, caducous. hairy petals 8, narrowing at the base into a horn-like nectariferous claw, hilabiate, the lower lip being bifid; stamens many, connective broad; carpels 3-10 sessile, whorled, connate at the base, each finishing in a linear style
Fruits / pods:   Follicles partly connate in a capsule
Flowering Period:   March, April, May, June
Habitat:   Batha, Phrygana
Distribution:   Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands
Chorotype:   Mediterranean
Summer shedding:   Ephemeral


Derivation of the botanical name:

Nigella, diminutive of Latin niger or nigrum, black, referring to the seed color.

ciliaris, cilium, eyelash and eyelid together; aris, of or pertaining to; meaning fringed with hair.
The Hebrew name: קצח, ketzach; the Arabic and Aramaic name is ketzah.

  • The standard author abbreviation DC. is used to indicate Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778 – 1841), a Swiss botanist.