Alexanders
(Smyrnium olusatrum)
Botanical name: Smyrnium olusatrum L.
Family: Apiaceae = Umbelliferae
Common names. English: alexanders, alisander, maceron; Spanish: apio caballar, apio equino, apio macedónico, perejil macedónico, esmirnio, olosatro, cañarejo; Portuguese and Galician: salsa de cavalo, cegudes, apio dos cavalos, roses de pé de piolho; Catalan: api cavallar, abil de siquia, julivert de moro, cugul, aleixandri
Origin of the name
This is the hipposelinon of the Greeks, a word which means parsley or "horse celery". In Arabic, during the Andalusian period, it was called karafs barri, one of the various karafs (celeries) known by Hispano-Arab agronomists, different from cultivated celery (Apium graveolens), aquatic celery (A. nudiflorum) and mountain or rock celery (the Greek and Latin petroselinum or oreoselinon). Alexanders has always been identified as oriental or Macedonian, very possibly as a reference to its geographical origin and its allochthonous character.
Properties, uses and cultivation
Its use as a medicinal plant is very old. The Greek botanist Theophrastus (fourth century BC) made reference to the plant. Dioscorides (first century) also included it in his Materia medica, commenting that its roots and leaves were edible. According to this author, its seed, taken with wine, is an emmenagogue. However, Galen said that it was less active than celery. In the Cordoba of the caliphs, Maimonides also spoke of its powers. During the Middle Ages, it was constantly considered as a plant with diuretic, depurative and aperient properties, particularly through its root. However, its most outstanding quality was perhaps as an antiscorbutic because of its high vitamin C content. The fruit has carminative and stomachic properties. In the eighteenth century, it continued to maintain its reputation as a medicinal plant. as the Flore économique des plantes qui croissent aux environs de Paris described it in 1799.
The plant, and especially the leaves, have a smell and flavour similar to myrrh. Hence the origin of the word smyrnion, its generic name. Columela (first century) refers to the plant as "myrrh of Achaea", because it was grown in Greece. which the Romans called Achaica or Achaea. It is also because of its characteristic flavour and smell that it is used as a condiment; it is used to season food in a similar way to parsley, giving flavour to soups and stews, and to prepare sauces accompanying meat and fish. However. its commonest use has been as a fresh vegetable, with a preference being shown for its leaves, young shoots and leaf stalks, which impart a pleasant flavour similar to celery, although somewhat sharper. It has also been eaten cooked. The Latin word olusatrum, which means "black vegetable". reflects these uses. The roots were used preserved in a sweet-and-sour pickle. The fruit contains an essential oil, cuminal, which is reminiscent of cumin.
The history of its cultivation is surprising. Of all the Umbelliferae used as vegetables, alexanders has been one of the commonest in gardens for many centuries, although in the nineteenth century it was almost completely forgotten. It was probably being gathered before the Neolithic period and was already being grown as early as the Iron Age. It became very popular during the time of Alexander the Great (fourth century BC) and was widely grown by the Romans, who certainly introduced it into western and central Europe, including the British Isles. It is now naturalized in these regions and on the Iberian Peninsula.
Columela elaborates on its cultivation and methods of consumption: "Before alexanders puts out stems, pull up its root in January or February and, after shaking it gently to remove any soil, place it in vinegar and salt; after 30 days, take it out and peel off its skin; otherwise, place its chopped pith into a new glass container or jar and add juice to it as described below. Take some mint, raisins and a small dry onion and grind them together with toasted wheat and a little honey; when all this is well ground, mix with it two parts of syrup and one of vinegar and put it like this into the aforementioned jar and, after covering it with a lid, place a skin over it; later, when you wish to use it, remove the pieces of root with their own juice and add oil to them."
Isidorode Sevilla (sixth century [1982]) seems to attach less importance to alexanders.
In France, it was an important vegetable, and was grown on the estates of the Carolingian kings. Thus, in the Capitular de Villis, promulgated by Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne (around AD 795), alexanders appears among the plants which should be cultivated. In the eighteenth century, in Versailles, it was used blanched to accompany winter salads. In the early nineteenth century, Rozier, in his Dictionnaire universel d'agriculture pratique, writes: "The leaves of alexanders can appear among cooking condiments, like parsley. Its roots and young shoots are still eaten in England after blanching in the same way as celery."
There is documentation on its cultivation in Belgium in the fifteenth century and on its abundance in English gardens in the sixteenth century. The Italians also traditionally used this plant. However, by about the eighteenth century its cultivation was only very occasional or had fallen into disuse. In Spain, Font Quer (eighteenth century [1990]) says that its root was eaten in many countries as a salad, raw and cooked, as were the stems and young leaves. By the nineteenth century, Spanish agronomists were no longer making any reference to it. Thus, Boutelou and Boutelou (1801) do not mention it, an omission which contrasts with the 13 pages devoted to celery cultivation.
Alexanders was falling into disuse as from the seventeenth century. in direct competition with the celery of the Italians", an improved form of wild celery (Apium graveolens). This is a case of marginalization in which one plant, doubtless widely used since prehistory, is replaced by another one improved later.
Botanical description
Alexanders is a biennial herbaceous plant with a thick elongated root. The stems grow up to 150 cm and hollow on fruiting. It has large, pinnatisect, basal leaves, with ovate to subrhombic terminal segments; the caulinar leaves are pinnatisect. The umbels have seven to 22 rays, with black. didymous fruit measuring 5.5 to 7.5 x 4 to 7.5 mm. Alexanders flowers from April to June and propagates well from seed. Its chromosome structure is 2n = 2x = 22.
Ecology and phytogeography
Wild populations of alexanders grow abundantly in salt-marshes and uncultivated land near the sea. normally in lime soils. It is also found in hedges. woods and on waysides.
It is spontaneous throughout southern Europe, North Africa (Algeria) and in the Near East. In former times it was very abundant in the area around Alexandria. Vavilov (1951) places this crop in the Mediterranean gene centre.
It also occurs on the Canary Islands and in the rest of the Macronesian region.
Genetic diversity
Perfoliate alexanders (Smyrnium perfoliatum L.) has smaller fruit (3.5 mm long) and is distributed through central and southern Europe and southwest Asia. The blanched stems and leaves are used in salads. Its cultivation is documented in the sixteenth century. According to Mathon (1986), this species is of superior quality.
Nowadays it is very difficult to find cultivars of alexanders. However, several cultivated varieties must have existed. For example, in England in 1570, Petrus Pena and Mathius Lobel wrote: "...the cultivated form is far better than the wild plant...". It seems that the plant is still occasionally grown in Great Britain.
Accessions of this species are kept only in the gene bank of the Córdoba Botanical Garden. They are from wild populations in Andalusia.
Cultivation practices
According to Columela, "alexanders must be grown from seed in ground dug out with a pastino, particularly close to walls because it likes shade and thrives on any kind of ground: so once you have sown it, if you do not uproot it fully but leave its stems for seed instead, it lasts forever and requires only light hoeing. It is sown from the feast day of Vulcan (August) until the calends of September, but also in January...".
Nowadays, since cultivation has been relegated to a few family gardens, similar practices are frequently seen. The stem is left to seed, and sowing and spontaneous cultivation takes place. Something like this usually occurs with chard: weeds are removed and a little fertilizer is applied.
Modernization of this crop will depend on techniques similar to those used for celery, including blanching, taking into account the fact that alexanders requires less soil and water.
Prospects for improvement
Celery was also known from antiquity but was considered to be an inedible plant of ill omen. The Greeks, who called it apion, used it in funeral ceremonies. It appears to have been grown early in our era by the Latins. Columela refers to it: ...after the ides of May, nothing must be put in the earth when summer approaches, except for celery seed, which must nevertheless be watered, since in this way it does very well...". Paladio also mentions it, probably basing himself on the earlier source. Likewise, in the Capitular de Villis (eighth century) reference is made to both apium and olisatum. Throughout this period, cultivation of alexanders seems to be predominant.
Around the seventeenth century, types of celery appeared which were derived through breeding to obtain a better size and improved succulence of the leaf stalks (var. dulce (Mill.) Gaud.-Beaup.) or fuller leaf development (var. secalinum Mill.) and which were clearly differentiated from the wild plant. These types are actually different vegetables requiring specific cultivation practices. Thus sweet-leaved celery ("celery of the Italians") is well suited to "blanching", which enables a milder, more tender product to be obtained.
The marginalization or disuse of many vegetables used since ancient times in Europe may be connected with the changing tastes in the Western world. The trend has been away from dishes rich in spices and hot ingredients towards milder dishes, which respect the flavour of the food itself or enhance it. This is perhaps the case with celery vis-à-vis alexanders. Alexanders is more bitter and pungent and not as tender as sweet celery.
It is significant in this respect that the last agronomic references to the cultivation of alexanders mention the introduction of the blanching technique. It appears thus in the reports by Versailles and Abbot Rozier: "...after they have been blanched in the same way as celery..."; and Barral and Sagnier, in Diccionario de agricultura (1889), write: "...in Turkey the cultivation of this plant is still an honour. The leaf is eaten after it has been blanched...". The blanching technique also used to be employed in North America. It is obvious that the smaller plant, celery, had asserted itself and now served as a reference, making it necessary to adopt the same cultivation practice for alexanders, evidently with little success.
While cultivation of alexanders is waning, cultivation of celery is by contrast on the increase, as is its importance in cool subtropical and tropical areas of Latin America and the Far East. Petiolate cultivate with big leaves are chiefly used.
The recovery of alexanders would be achieved via the derivation of plant materials with a specific typology, for specific uses, and the development of associated agronomic techniques; this seems very unlikely.
taken from
www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/1492/neglected.html
