Capsella bursa-pastoris explained

Capsella bursa-pastoris, known as shepherd's purse because of its triangular flat fruits, which are purse-like, is a small annual and ruderal flowering plant in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). It is native to eastern Europe and Asia minor,[1] but is naturalized and considered a common weed in many parts of the world, especially in colder climates,[2] including the British Isles,[3] where it is regarded as an archaeophyte,[4] [5] North America[6] [7] and China,[8] but also in the Mediterranean and North Africa.[1] C. bursa-pastoris is the second-most prolific wild plant in the world,[8] and is common on cultivated ground and waysides and meadows.

Scientists have referred to this species as a protocarnivore, since it has been found that its seeds attract and kill nematodes as a means to locally enrich the soil.[9] [10]

Description

Capsella bursa-pastoris plants grow from a rosette of lobed leaves at the base. From the base emerges a stem most often NaN0NaN0 tall, but occasionally as much as 700NaN0 or as little as 21NaN1, which bears a few pointed leaves which partly grasp the stem.[11] The flowers, which appear in any month of the year in the British Isles,[12] are white and small, 2.5mm in diameter, with four petals and six stamens.[12] They are borne in loose racemes, and produce flattened, two-chambered seed pods known as silicles, which are triangular to heart-shaped, each containing several seeds.

Like a number of other plants in several plant families, its seeds contain a substance known as mucilage, a condition known as myxospermy.[13] Recently, this has been demonstrated experimentally to perform the function of trapping nematodes, as a form of 'protocarnivory'.[9] [10] [14]

Capsella bursa-pastoris is closely related to the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana and is also used as a model organism, because the variety of genes expressed throughout its life cycle can be compared to genes that have been well studied in A. thaliana. Unlike most flowering plants, it flowers almost all year round.[8] Like other annual ruderals exploiting disturbed ground, C. bursa-pastoris reproduces entirely from seed, has a long soil seed bank,[4] and short generation time,[1] and is capable of producing several generations each year.

Taxonomy

Capsella bursa-pastoris subsp. thracicus (Velen.) Stoj. & Stef. is the only known subspecies.

History

A very early European illustration of Capsella bursa-pastoris was published in a medieval Herbarius in aproximatly 1486. The book was printed in Louvain in what is now Belgium. The species was apparently not included in the ancient pharmacopoeia with William Turner stating in 1548 that it and twenty or thirty others had come to be known as medicinal plants from Arab sources.[15]

It was formally described by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in his seminal publication Species Plantarum in 1753, and then published by Friedrich Kasimir Medikus in Pflanzen-Gattungen (Pfl.-Gatt.) in 1792.[16] [17]

Names

William Coles wrote in his book, Adam in Eden (1657), "It is called Shepherd's purse or Scrip (wallet) from the likeness of the seed hath with that kind of leathearne bag, wherein Shepherds carry their Victualls [food and drink] into the field."[18]

In England and Scotland, it was once commonly called 'mother's heart', from which was derived a child's game/trick of picking the seed pod, which then would burst and the child would be accused of 'breaking his mother's heart'.[18]

Uses

Capsella bursa-pastoris gathered from the wild or cultivated has many uses, including for food,[8] to supplement animal feed,[19] for cosmetics,[19] and in traditional medicine—reportedly to stop bleeding. The plant can be eaten raw;[20] the leaves are best when gathered young.[21] Native Americans ground it into a meal and made a beverage from it.[22]

Cooking

It is cultivated as a commercial food crop in Asia. [23] In China, where it is known as jìcài (Chinese: 荠菜; Chinese: 薺菜) it is commonly used in food in Shanghai and the surrounding Jiangnan region. The savory leaf is stir-fried with rice cakes and other ingredients or as part of the filling in wontons. It is one of the ingredients of the symbolic dish consumed in the Japanese spring-time festival, Nanakusa-no-sekku. In Korea, it is known as naengi (Korean: 냉이) and used as a root vegetable in the characteristic Korean dish, namul (fresh greens and wild vegetables).[24]

The seeds of shepherd's purse were used as a pepper substitute in colonial New England.

Chemistry

Fumaric acid is one chemical substance that has been isolated from C. bursa-pastoris.

Pathogens

Pathogens of this plant include:

Notes and References

  1. Aksoy . A . Dixon . JM . Hale . WH . 1998 . Biological flora of the British Isles. Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medikus (Thlaspi bursapastoris L., Bursa bursa-pastoris (L.) Shull, Bursa pastoris (L.) Weber) . Journal of Ecology . 86 . 171–186 . 10.1046/j.1365-2745.1998.00260.x. 1303.1393 . 84689066 .
  2. Web site: Capsella bursa-pastoris. Flora of Pakistan .
  3. Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. 1968. Excursion Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press.
  4. Book: Preston. CD. Pearman. DA . Dines. TD. 2002. New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora. Oxford University Press . 978-0198510673 .
  5. Preston . CD . Pearman . DA . Hall . AR . 2004 . Archaeophytes in Britain . Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society . 145 . 3. 257–294 . 10.1111/j.1095-8339.2004.00284.x. free .
  6. Web site: Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik . USDA Plants Database.
  7. Book: Blanchan, Neltje . Wild Flowers Worth Knowing . 2005 . . Neltje Blanchan . Wild Flowers Worth Knowing .
  8. Web site: Capsella bursa-pastoris . Flora of China .
  9. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28564-x Nature - Evidence for Facultative Protocarnivory in Capsella bursa-pastoris seeds
  10. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/6727709/Tomatoes-can-eat-insects.html Telegraph - Tomatoes Can Eat Insects
  11. Web site: Al-Shehbaz . Ihsan A. . Ihsan Ali Al-Shehbaz . Capsella bursa-pastoris - FNA . Flora of North America . 9 May 2024 . 5 November 2020.
  12. Book: Clapham . A.R. . Tutin . T.G. . Warburg . E.F. . 1981 . Excursion Flora of the British Isles . Third . Cambridge University Press . 978-0521232906 .
  13. Plant Physiology . February 2000 . 122 . 345–355 . Differentiation of Mucilage Secretory Cells of the Arabidopsis Seed Coat . Tamara L. Western . Debra J. Skinner . George W. Haughn . 58872 . 10.1104/pp.122.2.345 . 10677428 . 2.
  14. Barber, J.T. . 1978 . Capsella bursa-pastoris seeds: Are they "carnivorous"? . . 7 . 2 . 39–42 . 10.55360/cpn072.jb538 .
  15. Book: Morton, A.G. . 1981 . History of Botanical Science' . 96–97, 118, 150 . Academic Press . 0125083823 .
  16. Web site: Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik. is an accepted name. 23 March 2012. theplantlist.org. 14 December 2017.
  17. Web site: Brassicaceae Capsella bursa-pastoris Medik. ipni.org. 14 December 2017.
  18. Book: 1981 . Reader's Digest Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain . 54 . . 9780276002175.
  19. Web site: Capsella bursa-pastoris (Ecocrop code 4164). dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304193735/http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/dataSheet?id=4164. 2016-03-04. 2008-08-06. ecocrop. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
  20. Book: Nyerges . Christopher . Foraging Wild Edible Plants of North America: More than 150 Delicious Recipes Using Nature's Edibles . 2016 . Rowman & Littlefield . 978-1-4930-1499-6 . 164 .
  21. Book: Benoliel, Doug. Northwest Foraging: The Classic Guide to Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest. Skipstone. 2011. 978-1-59485-366-1. Rev. and updated. Seattle, WA. 139. 668195076.
  22. Book: Nyerges, Christopher. Foraging Washington: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods. Falcon Guides. 2017. 978-1-4930-2534-3. Guilford, CT. 965922681.
  23. Book: Mills . David . Nature's Restaurant: Fields, Forests & Wetlands Foods of Eastern North America - A Complete Wild Food Guide. March 11, 2014 .
  24. Book: Korea: a historical and cultural dictionary . 310 . Pratt Keith L. . Richard Rutt . James Hoare . 978-0-7007-0464-4 . 1999 . Curzon Press . Richmond, Surrey..
  25. Helgi Hallgrímsson & Guðríður Gyða Eyjólfsdóttir (2004). Íslenskt sveppatal I - smásveppir [Checklist of Icelandic Fungi I - Microfungi]. Fjölrit Náttúrufræðistofnunar. Náttúrufræðistofnun Íslands [Icelandic Institute of Natural History]. ISSN 1027-832X

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