Silphium

 

There once was a plant that grew wild along a narrow coastal strip of North Africa, in what is modern day Libya: silphium. It could not be cultivated in fields, nor could it be propagated by human hands; growing naturally in the wild, this endemic herb was one of those plants humanity never quite managed to domesticate.

Romans and Greeks used it to flavor their food, but the real issue was medicine. It was a cure all for everything from sore throats to coughs. Moreover, it was the most powerful weapon of population planning in the ancient world the era's most effective birth control method.

The city of Cyrene grew into one of the wealthiest centers in the Mediterranean by trading this plant internationally. The local economy depended entirely on silphium exports. So much so that, as a symbol of power and wealth, they stamped the plant and its famous, notched, heart-shaped seed directly onto their minted coins. The root of the heart shape we know today as the universal symbol of love and affection traces back to this trade.

Yet human hands were quick to consume everything. Believing it would "always grow back," the plants were ruthlessly ripped out by the roots; to make matters worse, grazing sheep in the region left no leaves behind.

According to the historian Pliny, by the 1st century AD, during the reign of Emperor Nero, not a single stalk of silphium remained in the wild. The final plant brought as a gift to the imperial palace became its absolute last trace in history. Silphium completely vanished through human greed. Meanwhile, the earth silently took its revenge, never surrendering that secret ever again.