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).[2]
| Shepherd's purse | |
|---|---|
| |
| Flowering and fruiting | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Brassicales |
| Family: | Brassicaceae |
| Genus: | Capsella |
| Species: | C. bursa-pastoris
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| Binomial name | |
| Capsella bursa-pastoris | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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List
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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.
It is native to Eurasia but is naturalized and considered a common weed in many parts of the world, especially in colder climates. It has a number of culinary uses.
Description
edit
Capsella bursa-pastoris plants grow from a rosette of lobed leaves at the base. From the base emerges a stem most often 10–50 cm (4–20 in) tall, but occasionally as much as 70 cm (28 in) or as little as 2 cm (3⁄4 in), which bears a few pointed leaves which partly grasp the stem.[3] The flowers, which appear in any month of the year in the British Isles,[4] are white and small, 2.5 mm (1⁄8 in) in diameter, with four petals and six stamens.[4] 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.[5]
Like a number of other plants in several plant families, its seeds contain a substance known as mucilage, a condition known as myxospermy.[6] Recently, this has been demonstrated experimentally to perform the function of trapping nematodes, as a form of 'protocarnivory'.[7][8][9]
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.[5][10] Like other annual ruderals exploiting disturbed ground, C. bursa-pastoris reproduces entirely from seed, has a long soil seed bank,[11] and short generation time,[12] and is capable of producing several generations each year.
Chemistry
editFumaric acid has been isolated from C. bursa-pastoris.[13]
Taxonomy
editCapsella bursa-pastoris subsp. thracicus (Velen.) Stoj. & Stef. is the only known subspecies.[14]
History
editA 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.[14][16]
Names
editWilliam 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."[17]
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'.[17]
Distribution and habitat
editIt is native to eastern Europe and Asia minor,[12] but is naturalized and considered a common weed in many parts of the world, especially in colder climates,[18] including the British Isles,[19] where it is regarded as an archaeophyte,[11][20] North America[21][5] and China,[10] but also in the Mediterranean and North Africa.[12] C. bursa-pastoris is the second-most prolific wild plant in the world,[10] and is common on cultivated ground and waysides and meadows.[4]
Ecology
editPathogens of this plant include:[citation needed]
- White rust Albugo candida
- One species of downy mildew Hyaloperonospora parasitica
- Phoma herbarum[22]
Uses
editCapsella bursa-pastoris gathered from the wild or cultivated[23][24] has many uses, including for food,[10][24] to supplement animal feed,[23] for cosmetics,[23] and in traditional medicine[10][23]—reportedly to stop bleeding.[25] The plant can be eaten raw;[26] the leaves are best when gathered young.[27] Native Americans ground it into a meal and made a beverage from it.[25]
Cooking
editIt is cultivated as a commercial food crop in Asia.[28] In China, where it is known as jìcài (荠菜; 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.[29] 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 (냉이) and used as a root vegetable in the characteristic Korean dish, namul (fresh greens and wild vegetables).[30]
The seeds of shepherd's purse were used as a pepper substitute in colonial New England.[31][failed verification]
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Nanakusa-gayu (seven herb congee) -
Naengi-doenjang-guk (soybean paste soup with shepherd's purse)
References
edit- ^ "Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik". Plants of the World Online. Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2017. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
- ^ Parnell, J.; Curtis, T. (2012). Webb's An Irish Flora. Cork University Press. p. 262. ISBN 978-185918-4783.
- ^ Al-Shehbaz, Ihsan A. (5 November 2020). "Capsella bursa-pastoris - FNA". Flora of North America. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
- ^ a b c Clapham, A.R.; Tutin, T.G.; Warburg, E.F. (1981). Excursion Flora of the British Isles (Third ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0521232906.
- ^ a b c Blanchan, Neltje (2005). Wild Flowers Worth Knowing. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.
- ^ Tamara L. Western; Debra J. Skinner; George W. Haughn (February 2000). "Differentiation of Mucilage Secretory Cells of the Arabidopsis Seed Coat". Plant Physiology. 122 (2): 345–355. doi:10.1104/pp.122.2.345. PMC 58872. PMID 10677428.
- ^ Nature - Evidence for Facultative Protocarnivory in Capsella bursa-pastoris seeds
- ^ Telegraph - Tomatoes Can Eat Insects
- ^ Barber, J.T. (1978). "Capsella bursa-pastoris seeds: Are they "carnivorous"?" (PDF). Carnivorous Plant Newsletter. 7 (2): 39–42. doi:10.55360/cpn072.jb538.
- ^ a b c d e "Capsella bursa-pastoris". Flora of China.
- ^ a b Preston, CD; Pearman, DA; Dines, TD (2002). New Atlas of the British & Irish Flora. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198510673.
- ^ a b c 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. arXiv:1303.1393. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2745.1998.00260.x. S2CID 84689066.
- ^ Kuroda, K.; Akao, M.; Kanisawa, M.; Miyaki, K. (1976). "Inhibitory effect of Capsella bursa-pastoris extract on growth of Ehrlich solid tumor in mice". Cancer Research. 36 (6): 1900–1903. PMID 1268843.
- ^ a b "Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik. is an accepted name". theplantlist.org. 23 March 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
- ^ Morton, A.G. (1981). History of Botanical Science'. Academic Press. pp. 96–97, 118, 150. ISBN 0125083823.
- ^ "Brassicaceae Capsella bursa-pastoris Medik". ipni.org. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
- ^ a b Reader's Digest Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain. Reader's Digest. 1981. p. 54. ISBN 9780276002175.
- ^ "Capsella bursa-pastoris". Flora of Pakistan.
- ^ Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. 1968. Excursion Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-04656-4
- ^ Preston, CD; Pearman, DA; Hall, AR (2004). "Archaeophytes in Britain". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 145 (3): 257–294. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2004.00284.x.
- ^ "Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik". USDA Plants Database.
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d "Capsella bursa-pastoris (Ecocrop code 4164)". ecocrop. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
- ^ a b "Capsella bursa-pastoris - (L.)Medik". Plants For A Future database report.
- ^ a b Nyerges, Christopher (2017). Foraging Washington: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods. Guilford, CT: Falcon Guides. ISBN 978-1-4930-2534-3. OCLC 965922681.
- ^ Nyerges, Christopher (2016). Foraging Wild Edible Plants of North America: More than 150 Delicious Recipes Using Nature's Edibles. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-4930-1499-6.
- ^ Benoliel, Doug (2011). Northwest Foraging: The Classic Guide to Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest (Rev. and updated ed.). Seattle, WA: Skipstone. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-59485-366-1. OCLC 668195076.
- ^ Mills, David (March 11, 2014). Nature's Restaurant: Fields, Forests & Wetlands Foods of Eastern North America - A Complete Wild Food Guide.
- ^ Samuels, Debra (12 May 2015). "This Chinese grandma forages and cooks". bostonglobe.com. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
- ^ Pratt Keith L.; Richard Rutt; James Hoare (1999). Korea: a historical and cultural dictionary. Richmond, Surrey.: Curzon Press. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-7007-0464-4.
- ^ Hussey, Jane Strickland (Jul–Sep 1974). "Some Useful Plants of Early New England". Economic Botany. 28 (3): 311–337. doi:10.1007/BF02861428. JSTOR 4253521. S2CID 12764441.
External links
edit- Mrs. M. Grieve. A Modern Herbal. Shepherd's Purse
Media related to Capsella bursa-pastoris at Wikimedia Commons
