Colchicum_ritchii

<i>Colchicum ritchii</i>

Colchicum ritchii

Species of plant

Colchicum ritchii, or the Egyptian autumn crocus, is a plant species native to the southeastern Mediterranean east to the Arabian Peninsula.

Quick Facts Colchicum ritchii, Scientific classification ...

Description

Colchicum ritchii grows from a corm which is oval measuring 2-3.5 cm across, and covered with a loose brown skin. The leaves, which emerge and develop at the same time as the flowers, are largely hairless and elongate after flowering to form a cone which protects the developing fruits. The flowers which appear in December, January and February are white or pink, with plants with either colour frequently growing alongside each other. Each plant produces 2-10 flowers, which each have 6 tepals, 6 anthers and 3 styles. The inner tepals are ridged with just one, or at most very few teeth at the base, near the base of the anther. The anthers are black, but get covered by yellow pollen. The fruit is a green, irregularly shaped capsule, up to 35 mm long and 15 mm across which contains round, globular seeds.[2]

Habitat

Colchicum ritchii is a plant of sand and loess soils in desert and shrub-steppes .[2]

Distribution

Colchicum ritchii is found from Tunisia[3] in the west to Jordan and Saudi Arabia.[1][4][5]

Uses

Extracts from Colchicum ritchii are used in traditional medicine to treat arthritis, rheumatism, gout and abdominal colics.[6] Bedouin children dig up the corms from the desert to sell them after drying them to herbalists in Alexandria and other Egyptian cities.[7] The anti-inflammatory drug colchicine was originally extracted from closely related species to this plant in ancient Egypt.[8]

Etymology

Colchicum ritchii was named by Robert Brown after Joseph Ritchie who he said was the first to observe the plant near Tripoli.[9]

References

  1. [1]
    Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Colchicum ritchii
  2. [2]
    "Colchicum ritchii R.Br". Flora of Israel Online. Prof. Avinoam Danin. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
  3. [3]
    "The Euro+Med PlantBase - the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity". Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
  4. [4]
    F. Q. Alali1; K. Tawaha; T. El-Elimat (2007). "Determination of (–)-demecolcine and (–)-colchicine content in selected Jordanian Colchicum species". Pharmazie. 62 (10): 739–742. PMID 18236776.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. [5]
    Robert Brown. 1826. Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa App.: 241, Colchicum ritchii
  6. [6]
    "NORTH AFRICA BIODIVERSITY PROGRAMME, PHASE III" (PDF). IUCN. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
  7. [7]
    "NORTH AFRICA PROGHRAMME BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION Conservation and sustainable Use of Biological Resources in the North Western Desert of Egypt with the Involvement of the Local Population" (PDF). IUCN. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
  8. [8]
    Wallace Graham; James B. Roberts (1953). "Intravenous colchicine in the treatment of gouty arthritis". Ann Rheum Dis. 12 (1): 16–19. doi:10.1136/ard.12.1.16. PMC 1030428. PMID 13031443.
  9. [9]
    Robert Brown (1826). Observations on the structure and affinities of the more remarkable plants collected by the late Walter Oudney and Major Denham: and Captain Clapperton in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824, during their expedition to explore Central Africa. T Davison. p. 36.
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