Leptadenia pyrotechnica

Leptadenia pyrotechnica is heavily branched and reaches heights of up to 3 metres. The shrub's long roots reach up to 12 metres below the surface.{{cite journal |last1=Batanouny |first1=K.H. |last2=Abdel Wahab |first2=A.M. |title=Eco-physiological studies on desert plants |journal=Oecologia |date=1 June 1973 |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=151–161 |doi=10.1007/BF00345129 |pmid=28307212 |bibcode=1973Oecol..11..151B |s2cid=11208248 }} The leaves of the green to grey-green branches tend to fall off early. When present, they are opposite, sessile, elongated to linear, glabrous and about 2 cm long and 3 mm wide.

The very small, greenish-yellow, hermaphrodite and five-fold, short-stalked flowers with a double inflorescence have a diameter of 2 mm and stand in axillary, small cymous inflorescences. The flowers are fine-haired and have a minimal, fleshy corolla. The two ovaries are on top, whilst the stigma and stamens are fused into a very short gynostegium.

The narrow, many-seeded, green, follicular fruits reach 8–11 cm in length. When ripe (like those of the related milkweeds) they dehisce to liberate pappus-tufted seeds, which are carried off by the wind.M. Arbonnier: Arbres, arbustes et lianes des zones seches d'Afrique de l'Ouest. CIRAD, Montpellier 2000, {{ISBN|2-87614-431-X}}.{{cite journal |last1=Idrees |first1=Saiba |last2=Qureshi |first2=Rahmatullah |last3=Bibi |first3=Yameen |last4=Ishfaq |first4=Aqsa |last5=Khalid |first5=Nadia |last6=Iftikhar |first6=Anam |last7=Shabir |first7=Anam |last8=Riaz |first8=Iqra |last9=Saboon |first9=Nil |last10=Ahmad |first10=Nabeela |title= ETHNOBOTANICAL AND BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF Leptadenia pyrotechnica (Forssk.) Decne.: A REVIEW|journal= African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines|date=23 July 2016 |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=88–96 |doi=10.21010/ajtcam.v13i4.13 |pmid=28852724 |pmc=5566157 }}

The plant is used in thatching huts. The unripe 'pods' (actually follicles) of this shrub (known in Hindi as {{Transliteration|hi|khimpoli}} ({{lang|hi|खींपोळी}})) which ripen in the month of March, are of medicinal value and are also used as a vegetable. The fibre from the plant is used for making ropes. The plant itself is browsed by all stock, but most especially by camels for which it is considered a good fodder.

A review in 2016 of the literature devoted to the species presented it as possessing antifungal, antibacterial, anticancer, antioxidant, wound healing, anthelmintic, antiatherosclerotic, hypolipidemic, antdiabetic and hepatoprotective properties coupled with other multifarious uses. Almost all parts of the plant are used in the traditional medicinal systems of the various countries in which it grows.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz tentatively identifies this species as the lost ma'aleh ashan, which formed a key ingredient of the incense (ketoret) offered daily by the priests on the altar in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The shrub is known for its flammability - whence the specific name pyrotechnica, bestowed on it because it was used both as a tinder and as an inextinguishable slow match.{{cite web | url=https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.upwta.1_498 | title=Leptadenia pyrotechnica (Forssk.) Dec'ne [family ASCLEPIADACEAE] }} Its addition to the incense employed in priestly ritual might thus have ensured that the aromatic smoke so generated would rise in a perfectly vertical fashion (i.e. directly up to God) - as described in accounts of the burning of the incense used in the temple.{{cite book |last1=Steinsaltz |first1=Adin |title=Talmud Bavli - Yoma |date=1998 |publisher=Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications |location=Jerusalem, Israel |page=158/38a}}

The recipe for the sacred incense containing the flammable plant ma'aleh ashan (and the identity of the plant itself) were closely-guarded secrets, known only to the Avtinas family who perished without revealing them, refusing to disclose them until their ultimate loss following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.Pomegranates and golden bells: studies in biblical, Jewish, and ... - Page 143 Jacob Milgrom, David Pearson Wright, David Noel Freedman - 1995 "Just as the priests from the house of Avtinas did not want to reveal the secret of the temple incense's mixture (M.Yoma 3:11)."

According to the Temple Institute, "In our own time, some have speculated that this may be the plant Leptadenia pyrotechnica, which contains nitric acid [sic]."The Temple Institute https://templeinstitute.org/temple-incense-part-3/ Retrieved at 11.49 on Tuesday 9/8/22.

A recent study undertaken in Saudi Arabia did not, however, reveal unusually high levels of nitrates in the species (of the kind which would account for high flammability) when compared with those of various other desert plants, although this does not necessarily rule out the possibility of higher nitrate levels in Israeli populations of the plant.{{cite journal |last1=Alzarah |first1=M. I. |title=Nutritive value of the common grazing plants and their potential asforage resources in the Saudi Arabia eastern |journal=Al-Azhar Journal of Agricultural Research |date=1 June 2021 |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=101–115 |doi=10.21608/ajar.2021.218562 |doi-access=free }}

Similar firework-like behaviour of fistular plant stems was noted also in ancient China in regard to the hollow stems of bamboo and the bamboo-like shrub Leycesteria formosa - indeed, to this day, the Chinese consider the popping of burning bamboo stems in bonfires to be apotropaic and to have been the inspiration for the invention of pyrotechnics - whereby mixtures containing oxidising salts (such as nitrates) were packed in tubes of similar form.{{cite book|first=Joseph|last=Needham|year=1986|publisher=Cambridge University Press|title=Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7: Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic|isbn=0-521-30358-3|page=140}}

Shepherds in Niger snack on the raw flowers of the plant, while tending their flocks in the arid areas in which it grows.

File:Leptadenia pyrotechnica (Khimp).JPG|Leafless stems in flower

File:Leptadenia pyrotechnica 03.JPG|Clustered axillary inflorescence

File:Leptadenia pyrotechnica pods.JPG|Mass of (harvested) unripe follicles

File:Leptadenia pyrotechnica pods1.JPG|Lined-up, harvested follicles

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{{WestAfricanPlants|Leptadenia pyrotechnica}}

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Category:Asclepiadoideae

Category:Fruits originating in Africa

Category:Flora of Asia

Category:Plants described in 1775