Ferula

They are herbaceous perennial plants growing to 1–4 m tall, with stout, hollow, somewhat succulent stems. The leaves are tripinnate or even more finely divided, with a stout basal sheath clasping the stem. The basal sheaths of Ferula oopoda, for example, are up to long and form a cup holding about a cup of rainwater. The flowers are usually yellow, rarely white, produced in large umbels. ==Selected species==

. Ferula mushroom in Bingöl, Turkey The Roman spice laserpicium probably came from a species of Ferula, either an extinct one or Ferula tingitana or more recently Ferula drudeana, though other identities have been suggested. The Romans called the hollow light rod made from this plant a ferula (compare also fasces, judicial birches). Such rods were used for walking sticks, splints, for stirring boiling liquids, and for corporal punishment. The gummy resin of many species of Ferula is used for various purposes: • Ferula foetida, Ferula assa-foetida and some other species are used to make the spice asafoetida, or hing • Ferula gummosa makes galbanum • Ferula hermonis makes zallouh • Ferula moschata makes sumbul • Ferula persica or F. szowitziana makes sagapenum • Ferula marmarica makes "Cyrenaican ammoniacum" • Ferula ammoniacum makes "Persian ammoniacum" • Ferula communis subsp. brevifolia makes "Moroccan ammoniacum" ==References==