Proboscidea Louisianica
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''Proboscidea louisianica'' is a species of flowering plant in the family
Martyniaceae Martyniaceae is a family of flowering plants in the Lamiales order that are restricted to the Americas. The family was included in Pedaliaceae in the Cronquist system (under order Scrophulariales) but is recognized as a separate family by the An ...
. Its true native range is unclear, but probably includes parts of the
southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...
and
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
in North America.''Proboscidea louisianica''.
NatureServe. 2012.
It occurs in other areas, including other regions in North America, Europe,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, and
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, as an
introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived ther ...
. It is the most widely distributed species in its family.Riffle, M. S., et al. (1991). Composition of essential oil from ''Proboscidea louisianica'' (Martyniaceae). ''Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci'' 71, 35-42. Common names it shares with other ''
Proboscidea Proboscidea (; , ) is a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family (Elephantidae) and several extinct families. First described by J. Illiger in 1811, it encompasses the elephants and their close relatives. Three l ...
'' species include devil's claw and unicorn-plant.''Proboscidea louisianica''.
Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
Names more specific to the species include common devil's claw, ram's horn, aphid trap, Louisiana unicorn-plant, purple-flowered devil's-claw, goat's head, elephant tusks, and martinoe (or martina).


Description

The plant is an annual herb with spreading stems up to about 900 centimeters long. The oppositely arranged ovate leaves have blades up to 30 centimeters wide. The herbage is coated in glandular hairs carrying tiny oil droplets, making the plant feel oily to the touch and giving it a strong scent. The
essential oil An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the ...
vaporizes into the air, and gives the landscape a "distinct acrid odor". The lobed flower corolla is lavender,Stephens, J. M
Martynia — ''Proboscidea louisianica'' (Mill.) Thell.
HS624. Florida Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida IFAS. Published 1994, revised 2009.
"purple-cream",''Proboscidea louisianica'' (Mill.) Thell.
FloraBase. Western Australian Herbarium.
yellowish with purple spots,''Proboscidea louisianica''.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. University of Texas, Austin.
or "dull white to somewhat pinkish purple" with yellowish
nectar guide Nectar guides are markings or patterns seen in flowers of some angiosperm species, that guide pollinators to their Pollination syndrome, rewards. These markings may appear as lines, spots, or "blotches". Such patterns are also known as "pollen gu ...
s and with or without purple blotches.Nabhan, G., et al. (1981)
Devil's claw domestication: evidence from southwestern Indian fields.
''Journal of Ethnobiology'' 1(1), 35-164.
One plant can produce up to 80 fruits. The fruit is a
dehiscent Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. This is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part. Structures that op ...
capsule up to 10 centimeters long with a long, narrow, curving beak. As the fruit dries and the flesh falls away, the hard beak splits into two horns. The horns can be up to 30 centimeters long. The fruit can contain black or white seeds; white-seeded plants are more common in cultivation. The seeds can be over 43% oil.


Ecology

The plant rarely self-pollinates. It is pollinated by
bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...
s; species noted on the plant include '' Melissodes communis'', '' Svastra obliqua'', '' Anthophora occidentalis'', '' Augochlorella striata'', ''
Bombus fervidus ''Bombus fervidus'', the golden northern bumble bee or yellow bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee native to North America. It has a yellow-colored abdomen and thorax. Its range includes the North American continent, excluding much of the souther ...
'', ''
Bombus pensylvanicus ''Bombus pensylvanicus'', the American bumblebee, is a threatened species of bumblebee native to North America. It occurs in eastern Canada, throughout much of the Eastern United States, and much of Mexico.Hatfield, R., et al. 2015''Bombus pensyl ...
'', and ''
Lasioglossum The sweat bee genus ''Lasioglossum'' is the largest of all bee genera, containing over 1800 species in numerous subgenera worldwide.Gibbs, J., et al. (2012)Phylogeny of halictine bees supports a shared origin of eusociality for ''Halictus'' an ...
'' species.


Uses

The young green fruits are edible and can be
pickled Pickling is the process of preserving or extending the shelf life of food by either anaerobic fermentation in brine or immersion in vinegar. The pickling procedure typically affects the food's texture and flavor. The resulting food is called ...
. The seeds were used as food by Native Americans.''Proboscidea louisianica''.
Native American Ethnobotany. University of Michigan, Dearborn.
Like those of other ''Proboscidea'' species, the dry fruits were very useful in Native American
basketry Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...
. The dry horns could be incorporated into the baskets to form patterns, or used as
sewing Sewing is the craft of fastening pieces of textiles together using a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fabric, archaeo ...
implements. They provided a black
dye Juan de Guillebon, better known by his stage name DyE, is a French musician. He is known for the music video of the single "Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical ele ...
, especially when mixed with ash. Use of this species in basketry has been recorded among the
Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...
,
Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...
,
Havasupai The Havasupai people (Havasupai: ''Havsuw' Baaja'') are a Native American people and tribe who have lived in the Grand Canyon for at least the past 800 years. Their name means "people of the blue-green water", referring to Havasu Creek, a t ...
, and
Kawaiisu The Kawaiisu Nation (pronounced: "ka-wai-ah-soo") are a tribe of indigenous people of California in the United States. The Kawaiisu Nation is the only treatied tribe in California, Ratified Treaty (No. 256), 9 Stat. 984, Dec. 30, 1849. This Tr ...
. The Tohono O'odham domesticated the species and used the dark dry fruit for the black-colored patterning in basketry designs. Many other groups probably cultivated and used it, but records of use rarely distinguish between the particular ''Proboscidea'' species utilized. The plant is grown as an
ornamental plant Ornamental plants or ''garden plants'' are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars th ...
and a garden
novelty Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...
, and it is used in floral arrangements. It is cultivated in a similar manner as
okra Okra (, ), ''Abelmoschus esculentus'', known in some English-speaking countries as lady's fingers, is a flowering plant in the Malvaceae, mallow family native to East Africa. Cultivated in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate regions aro ...
.


Impacts

The dry, hooked fruits attach to animals, and it has been suggested that the plant was introduced to South Africa by this means. The fruits are particularly suited for catching on "the
fetlock Fetlock is the common name in horses, large animals, and sometimes dogs for the metacarpophalangeal and metatarsophalangeal joints (MCPJ and MTPJ). Although it somewhat resembles the human ankle in appearance, the joint is homologous to the ...
s of
ungulate Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Euungulata ("true ungulates"), which primarily consists of large mammals with Hoof, hooves. Once part of the clade "Ungulata" along with the clade Paenungulata, "Ungulata" has since been determined ...
s". The plant can be
weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, growing where it conflicts with human preferences, needs, or goals.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. Pla ...
y, easily taking hold in disturbed habitat types and displaying a "preference for waste places". It occurs in
pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...
s, cultivated fields, and
feedlot A feedlot or feed yard is a type of animal feeding operation (AFO) which is used in intensive animal farming, notably beef cattle, but also swine, horses, sheep, turkeys, chickens or ducks, prior to slaughter. Large beef feedlots are called conc ...
s. It is a weed of
cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...
crops known to cause drastic loss of fiber yields.Riffle, M. S., et al. (1988)
Germination and seed production of unicorn-plant (''Proboscidea louisianica'').
''Weed Science'' 36(6), 787-91.
Its strong essential oil appears to have an
allelopathic Allelopathy is a biological phenomenon by which an organism produces one or more biochemicals that influence the germination, growth, survival, and reproduction of other organisms. These biochemicals are known as allelochemicals and can have ben ...
effect on cotton plants, causing
necrosis Necrosis () is a form of cell injury which results in the premature death of cells in living tissue by autolysis. The term "necrosis" came about in the mid-19th century and is commonly attributed to German pathologist Rudolf Virchow, who i ...
of the foliage. The weed is resistant to many
herbicide Herbicides (, ), also commonly known as weed killers, are substances used to control undesired plants, also known as weeds.EPA. February 201Pesticides Industry. Sales and Usage 2006 and 2007: Market Estimates. Summary in press releasMain page f ...
s used in cotton, and control options include hoeing by hand.


References

{{Authority control Martyniaceae