Cynomorium coccineum

Maltese sponge ( cynomorium coccineum )

Maltese sponge ( cynomorium coccineum ) is a rare plant species and a full parasites ( Holoparasit ). It is one of two species in the genus cynomorium, which is the only genus of the family of Cynomoriaceae.

Description

The Maltese sponge is a reddish brown, phalloid fungus-like, about 15 to 30 cm tall plant without chlorophyll. He parasitized at the roots of salt shrubs and plants along the coast. The plant is in addition to appearing at bloom sprouts from an underground, branched rhizome.

The shoot ends in a terminal brown red inflorescence. The individual flowers are in the axils of triangular scaly leaves. The unisexual flowers have bracts that are reduced to lobed appendages. The male flowers have only one stamen.

Occurrence

Except on the rock Fungus Rock in front of the Maltese island of Gozo is the Maltese sponge in Italy, such as Sicily on the West Coast Nature Reserve Riserva naturale Saline di Trapani e Paceco and the large ponds of Marsala, in Sardinia and in the Archipelago Natural Park La Maddalena, off the island of Lampedusa. Other reserves are found in the south of Corsica, Oman, Morocco and Spain, as in the Parque Natural de Gata in the hinterland of Almería, in the Parque Natural de la Bahia de Cádiz. Cynomorium coccineum grows in salt marshes and marine sands.

Use

In the 16th and 17th centuries it was the panacea of the great hospital of Malta in Valletta. The dark red extract of cynomorium coccineum found use in the treatment of wounds, bleeding and injuries, but was also used as an aphrodisiac. In the 17th and 18th century, when it became the Order, the extract for exorbitant sums to the European royal houses for sale, the plant came to also economic importance. The Maltese kept the plant jealous and built in the early 18th century even a watchtower on the coast. The rocks could only be achieved in a basket which was pulled over a distance of 35 m on ropes between Gozo and the island back and forth.