Arum Cyrenaicum

''Arum cyrenaicum'' is a woodland plant species of the family Araceae. It has a disjunct distribution, being found in Greece and in Libya, where it has seen limited use as a foraged root and leaf vegetable.

Description

It has discoid tubers with dimensions × .Salih & Abdulrraziq 2024.

Petioles are dark green and long. Leaves usually number 4; individual simple, with hastate or sagittate blade morphology and a sharp apex × . The central vein is clear, and veins are reticulate-pinnate.

Inflorescence bisexual and monoecious. Spathe up to long, coiled at the bottom, widening at the middle and sharp at the top; laminate, lanceolate, acuminate, purple. Spathe one third shorter than spadix. Spadix long but indistinctly shaped, dung-scented. Spadix dark purple at the edges, pale green at the middle. The female flowers are below the male flowers on the lower part of the spadix, with between them. Club elongate, conical, obtuse, almost prostrately thickened from the stem, or more-or-less cylindrical like the purple stem, the same length as the stem, often longer. Male flowers form 4–5 purple circular rows; stamen filaments short, with pale purple anther and flexible yellow to cream coloured staminodes. Female flowers form 6–7 yellow circular rows; ovary single-chambered, usually with 4 ovules, no style, hemispherical stigma, parietal placentation topped with creamy yellow pistillodes. Upper organs polycyclic, neutral, yellowish, lower oligocyclic or completely absent as in A. pictum.

Fruits are green berries, which transition to orange and mature to red.

Morphological descriptions have also been published in 1977 and by Ralf and Schönfelder in 1995.

Taxonomy

It was first collected at the entrance of Lethe cave (Benghazi) by in 1883 but under the name '' A. italicum var. byzantinum'' . This specimen has been lost. The next collection was by Paul Hermann Wilhelm Taubert in 1887, again in Cyrenaica, but under the name '' Arum nickelii'' .

Distribution and habitat

Restricted to Crete and Cyrenaica. On Crete, it has been found near Vlthias, among other places. In Cyrenaica, it has been found at the entrance of Lethe cave, in the Wadi Zaza, the Wadi Belkaf, and at Cyrene, among other places.

The species was originally thought to be a Cyrenian endemic. But on 9 April 1984, Mary Briggs observed and photographed an individual near Vlithias ( Palaiochora), and returned in March 1988 to send living material to Peter Boyce, who grew several individuals from Cretan stock and confirmed their identity as ''A. cyrenaicum''.

On Crete, ''A. cyrenaicum'' grows in a woodland of ''Platanus orientalis'' , associated with ''Arum concinnatum'' , ''Cyclamen creticum'' , ''Hedera helix'' , and ''Tamus communis'' .

At Cyrene, ''A. cyrenaicum'' is the dominant species in one community at an elevation of . The other Araceae members are found in Cyrene are '' Arisarum vulgare'' and '' Biarum bovei'', though the former and ''A. cyrenaicum'' are much more common than the latter.

Ecology

''A. cyrenaicum'' is an annual herbaceous species. It is an understory species, growing to , flowering March-April. It can be pollinated by Nematocera species, attracted by its dung-like scent.

Uses

The rhizomes are used as food in Libya. It is said to have been consumed by Senussi rebels against the Italians.

It has also been noted as a potential ornamental plant.

Its anticancer and antidiabetic potential has been investigated. For anticancer activity, it was determined the fruit extract has shown toxicity on normal cells, while the root extract showed weak activity on cancer cells. For antidiabetic activity, PTP inhibition has been shown for the root and aerial part extracts.

Toxicity

A 2012 study confirmed the presence of oxalate type raphides in the species, especially concentrated in the leaves and fruit. With the exception of the corms, cyanogenic glycosides were also found throughout the plant, but especially in the inflorescences and fruits, then the spathes, and to a lesser extent the leaves. They determined these glycosides were destroyed with thermal treatment. They performed an acute toxicity test on laboratory mice, in which a dose of 2000 mg/kg of heated extract resulted in no metabolic or behavioral changes, confirming the ability of heat to destroy the raphides.

Chemistry

The seeds' major hydrocarbons are nonacosane (also present in the roots), hexadecane and 9,12-octadecadiene, which occur alongside nonacosanol. The fatty acid methyl ester myrestic acid predominates in the seeds, but is secondary to margaric acid in the roots.

The most abundant volatile compounds emitted by the inflorescence is bicyclogermacrene, followed by 1-decene, β-citronellene, dimethyl-octadiene, p-cresol and an unidentified sesquiterpene, and with lower abundances of methyl butyrate, methyl isobutyrate, 2-heptanone and 2-nonanone, and trace amounts of 2-methyl methyl butyrate, methyl benzoate, indole, skatole and various sesquiterpenes.

References

Bibliography

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{{Taxonbar, from=Q1148485

cyrenaicum
Cormous plants
Flora of North Africa
Flora of Crete
Flora of Libya
Plants described in 1912