Queen Anne’s lace – Israel flowers

Ammi majus, Bishop’s weed, Queen Anne’s lace, Ammee,
Hebrew: אמיתה גדולה, Arabic: الخلة الشيطانية, Egypt: خله شيطاني “Khilla Shitani”

Scientific name:   Ammi majus L.
Common name:   Bishop’s weed, Queen Anne’s lace, Ammee
Hebrew name:   אמיתה גדולה
Arabic name:   الخلة الشيطانية
Egypt:   خله شيطاني “Khilla Shitani”
Family:   Umbelliferae / Apiaceae, סוככיים


Life form:   Therophyte, annual
Stems:   90–150 cm high with striated subglaucous stems
Leaves:   Alternate, rosette, dissected, dentate or serrate
Inflorescence:   Umbels compound, scabrous; peduncle 8-14cm; rays 20-60, 2-7cm, slender; pedicels 1-10mm
Flowers:   Calyx lobes minute; petals wide, white, tips 2-lobed
Fruits / pods:   Fruit laterally compressed, oblong, mericarps of the cremocarp separated by a carpophore; seed small, pendulous, albuminous
Flowering Period:   March, April, May, June, July, August, September
Habitat:   Cultivated areas, roadsides, field margins
Distribution:   Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Shrub-steppes, Deserts and extreme deserts, Montane vegetation of Mt. Hermon
Chorotype:   Mediterranean
Summer shedding:   Ephemeral


Derivation of the botanical name:

Ammi (Dioscorides), from the Greek term ammos meaning “sand” and refers to the plant’s habitat.

majus, bigger, larger.
The Hebrew word: אמיתה, amita is mentioned in the Tosefta (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic תוספתא “supplement, addition”; created / edited in Talmudic Israel (approximately 190 – 230 AD)) as a spice plant: “וכן באמיתא וכן בפיגם וכן בשאר מיני תבלין. מאי אמיתה ניניא”, “And in Amita and in Pigm and in other kinds of spice. May true Amina Nina”.

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