Taxon: Nigella sativa L.

Common names:

• black-caraway   (Source: Food Feed Crops US ) – English
  
• black-cumin   (Source: World Econ Pl ) – English
  
• fennel-flower   (Source: Pl Book ) – English
  
• nigella   (Source: Herbs Commerce ed2 ) – English
  
• nutmeg-flower   (Source: F Iraq ) – English
  
• Roman-coriander   (Source: Dict Gard ) – English
  
• habah al-brekah   (Source: F Saudi ed3 ) – Arabic
  
• nigelle de Crète   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – French
  
• toute épice   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – French
  
• Schwarzkümmel   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – German
  
• cominho-negro   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Portuguese
  
• černuška posevnaja   (Source: Mansf Ency ) – Transliterated Russian
  
• ajenuz   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• arañuel   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• svartkummin   (Source: Vara kulturvaxt namn ) – Swedish
  

More:

see MMPND for additional names in foreign scripts

Economic importance:

• Food additives: flavoring   (fide F Eur ed2; L Edible Pl)
  
• Medicines: folklore   (fide CRC MedHerbs ed2; Herbs Commerce ed2)
  
• Vertebrate poisons: mammals   (fide F Yemen)
  

More:

View toxicology references for Nigella sativa from FDA Poisonous Plant Database

View phytochemical or ethnobotanical data from Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

Distributional range:

• ASIA-TEMPERATE
  Western Asia: Iraq; Turkey

• sometimes naturalized from Mediterranean region to c. Asia

• widely cultivated

References:

• Aldén, B., S. Ryman & M. Hjertson. 2009. Våra kulturväxters namn - ursprung och användning. Formas, Stockholm (Handbook on Swedish cultivated and utility plants, their names and origin).
• Babu, C. R. 1977. Herbaceous flora of Dehra Dun.
• Cufodontis, G. 1953–1972. Enumeratio plantarum aethiopiae: Spermatophyta.
• Davis, P. H., ed. 1965–1988. Flora of Turkey and the east Aegean islands.
• Duke, J. A. et al. 2002. CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs.
• Encke, F. et al. 1984. Zander: Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen, 13. Auflage.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop (on-line resource).
• Hanelt, P., ed. 2001. Mansfeld's encyclopedia of agricultural and horticultural crops. Volumes 1-6.
• Huxley, A., ed. 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening.
• Kartesz, J. T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland.
• Komarov, V. L. et al., eds. 1934–1964. Flora SSSR.
• Kunkel, G. 1984. Plants for human consumption.
• Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. 1976. Hortus third.
• Mabberley, D. J. 1997. The plant-book: a portable dictionary of the vascular plants, ed. 2.
• Markle, G. M. et al., eds. 1998. Food and feed crops of the United States, ed. 2.
• McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker. 2000. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2.
• Meikle, R. D. 1977–1985. Flora of Cyprus.
• Migahid, A. M. 1988–1990. Flora of Saudi Arabia, ed. 3.
• Mouterde, P. 1966–. Nouvelle flore du Liban et de la Syrie.
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) (on-line resource).
• Rehm, S. 1994. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants.
• Townsend, C. C. & E. Guest. 1966–. Flora of Iraq.
• Tutin, T. G. et al., eds. 1964–1980. Flora europaea.
• Tutin, T. G. et al., eds. 1993. Flora europaea, second edition.
• Wood, J. R. I. 1997. A handbook of the flora of Yemen.
• Zohary, M. 1983. The genus Nigella (Ranunculaceae) - a taxonomic review. Pl. Syst. Evol. 142:94.

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Nigella sativa.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Nigella sativa.

Search Biodiversity Heritage Library for historical publications referencing Nigella sativa.

Check other web resources for Nigella sativa L.:

• Flora Europaea: Database of European Plants (ESFEDS)
• Mansfeld: Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.

Check other web resources for images:

• PlantSystematics.org
• Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

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