''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 ...

. 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 region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...

and

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

in North America.''Proboscidea louisianica''.
NatureServe. 2012. It occurs in other areas, including other regions in North America, Europe, Australia, and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

, 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 the ...

. 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 The Proboscidea (; , ) are 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. Fr ...

'' 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, and elephant tusks.

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

vaporizes Vaporization (or vaporisation) of an element or compound is a phase transition from the liquid phase to vapor. There are two types of vaporization: evaporation and boiling. Evaporation is a surface phenomenon, whereas boiling is a bulk phenom ...

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 rewards. Rewards commonly take the form of nectar, pollen, or both, but various plants produce oil, resins, scents, or waxes. Suc ...

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 o ...

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 southe ...

'', ''

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 1700 species in numerous subgenera worldwide.Gibbs, J., et al. (2012)Phylogeny of halictine bees supports a shared origin of eusociality for ''Halictus'' and ...

'' 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 or attaching objects using stitches made with 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 fab ...

implements. They provided a black

dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution and ...

, especially when mixed with

ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

. Use of this species in basketry has been recorded among the

Hopi The Hopi are a Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the country. The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation within the Unite ...

, Apache,

Havasupai The Havasupai people (Havasupai: ''Havsuw' Baaja'') are an American Indian tribe who have lived in the Grand Canyon for at least the past 800 years. ''Havasu'' means "blue-green water" and ''pai'' "people". Located primarily in an area know ...

, and

Kawaiisu The Kawaiisu (pronounced: ″ka-wai-ah-soo″) are a Native Californian ethnic group in the United States who live in the Tehachapi Valley and to the north across the Tehachapi Pass in the southern Sierra Nevada, toward Lake Isabella and Walker ...

. 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 that ...

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 or Okro (, ), ''Abelmoschus esculentus'', known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It has edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with sup ...

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 Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraff ...

s". The plant can be

weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...

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. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or s ...

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 co ...

s. It is a weed of

cotton Cotton 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 cellulose, and can contain minor p ...

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 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. Necrosis is caused by factors external to the cell or tissue, such as infection, or trauma which result in the unregulated dig ...

of the foliage. The weed is resistant to many herbicides used in cotton, and control options include

hoeing A hoe is an ancient and versatile agricultural and horticultural hand tool used to shape soil, remove weeds, clear soil, and harvest root crops. Shaping the soil includes piling soil around the base of plants ( hilling), digging narrow furro ...

by hand.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2111569 Martyniaceae