Plants in Israel: Washerman’s plant

Achyranthes aspera, Achyranthes argentea, Achyranthes obtusifolia, Washerman’s plant, Prickly chaff flower, Devil’s horsewhip,

Hebrew: רב-מוץ מחוספס, Arabic: چرچٹہ آشنین


Scientific name:		Achyranthes aspera L.
Synonym name:		Achyranthes argentea Lam., Achyranthes aspera obtusifolia (Lam.) Griseb., Achyranthes obtusifolia Lamarck
English name:		Washerman’s plant, Prickly chaff flower, Devil’s horsewhip
Hebrew/שם עברי:		רב-מוץ מחוספס
Arabic/الاسم العربي:		چرچٹہ آشنین
Español:		Achyranthes aspera
中文-Chinese:		土牛膝
Family:		Amaranthaceae, Amaranth family, ירבוזיים

_{Location: National Park Hof HaSharon}


Life form:		Hemicryptophyte; pubescent perennial
Spinescence:		Flowers
Stems:		Densely pubescent, woody below
Leaves:		Opposite, entire, broadly ovate or broadly rhombic, green beneath, smooth margin
Inflorescence:		Narrow, elongated terminal spikes up to 60 cm long
Flowers:		Hermaphrodite, white, lilach, green
Spinescence:		Flowers – calyx, petals, appendages
Fruits / pods:		Sharp pointed, deflexed, capsule orange to reddish purple or straw-brown
Flowering Period:		February, March, April, May, June
Habitat:		Sandy soils, especially in the shade of trees and bushes
Distribution:		Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Deserts and extreme deserts
Chorotype:		Tropical
Summer shedding:		Perennating

_{Location: National Park Hof HaSharon}
Derivation of the botanical name:

Achyranthes, Greek achyron, chaff, and anthos, flower, referring to the chaffy parts of the flower.

aspera, rough.
The Hebrew word: רב -מוץ, rav-motz, from רב/rav, many, and מוץ/motz, chaff; many chaffs.

The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.

Charles Montgomery Skinner (1852 – 1907),an American writer, mentions in his book “Myths and Legends of Flowers, Trees, Fruits, and Plants: In All Ages and in All Climes”:
The Achyranthes is indigenous to India, and in one of the religious ceremonies of the Hindus a flour of its seed is offered at daybreak to the god Indra. Many demons had this hero-deity slain, but the monster Namuchi finally over- powered him, and Indra was glad to make peace with him by promising that he would never again slay any creature with either a liquid or a solid, by day or by night. This ap- peared to Namuchi to embrace all possible contingencies, but Indra plucked a plant, which is neither solid nor liquid — at least, in his reasoning — and, falling upon Namuchi in the dawn, when it is neither day nor night, he slew that astonished creature. As soon as the demon was dead, the achyranthes sprang from his skull, and with this plant Indra flogged all the other demons out of existence.

_{Location: National Park Hof HaSharon}