Zosima (plant)
{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}
{{For|the Greek saint|Zosima}}
{{Automatic taxobox
|image = Zosima absinthifolia.jpg
|image_caption = Zosima absinthifolia
|display_parents = 3
|taxon = Zosima (plant)
|authority = Hoffm.
|synonyms = Pichleria {{small|Stapf & Wettst.}}
}}
Zosima is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Apiaceae.{{cite web |title=Zosima Hoffm. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:40687-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=18 January 2022 |language=en}}
Its native range stretches from Afghanistan, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Sinai, Syria and Turkey, (in western Asia); Saudi Arabia, to North Caucasus and Transcaucasus, (in the Caucasus Mountains); Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, (in Central Asia); Xinjiang (in China) and Pakistan (in tropical Asia).
Description
They are herbaceous plants, biennial or monocarpic perennials.{{cite web |title=Zosima in Flora of China @ efloras.org |url=http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=135357 |website=www.efloras.org |access-date=18 January 2022}} They have thick,Peter Davis {{google books|76QxEAAAQBAJ|Flora of Turkey, Volume 4 (2019)|page=503}} yellow-red roots that are fusiform (rod-shaped). The stem is usually solitary, densely pubescent (has soft downy hairs), angled, corymbose-branched (branches arising at different points but reaching about the same height). The base of the stem is clothed in fibrous remnant sheaths. It has 1-2 leaves that are pinnatisect. The upper leaves are narrowly elliptic. The flower or inflorescence is compound umbels. They have 10-25 rays. The bracts and bracteoles are present, and linear to lanceolate (in shape). The flowers are hermaphrodite with calyx teeth minute. The petals are whitish, obcordate (broad and notched at the tip), with a narrow apex, inflexed and the outer petals are slightly enlarged (radiant). The fruit (or seed capsule) is broadly ovate, strongly dorsally compressed, densely minute-pubescent. The dorsal ribs are filiform (thread-like) with the marginal ribs broadly thin-winged. The distal parts are inflated and corky. The outer mesocarp layer is parenchymatous (a versatile ground tissue composed of living primary cells) and the inner layer is sclerified (thick, lignified, cell wall that is shorter than a fiber cell). The vittae (resin canals) are large, 1 in each furrow, 2 on commissure. The seed face is plane with a carpophore 2-parted to base.
The plants are close in form to Heracleum but the fruit differ.
The plants can be affected by parasites such as Erysiphe heraclei (leaf), Acmaeoderella gibbosula and Acmaeoderella villosula (stem) and also Bruchophagus gibbus (affects the fruit).{{cite web |title=genus Zosima – Plant Parasites of Europe |url=https://bladmineerders.nl/host-plants/plantae/spermatopsida/angiosperma/eudicots/superasterids/asterids/campanulids/apiales/apiaceae/apioideae/tordylieae/zosima/genus-zosima/ |website=bladmineerders.nl |access-date=18 January 2022}}
Known species
There are 4 accepted species, by Plants of the World Online and others, including Y. Menemen and S.L. Jury;{{cite journal |last1=Menemen |first1=Y. |last2=Jury |first2=S.L. |title=Taxonomic studies on the genus Zosima Hoffm. (Umbelliferae) |journal=Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien. Serie B für Botanik und Zoologie |date=2001 |volume=103 |pages=557–571}}
{{linked species list
|Zosima absinthiifolia |(Vent.) Link
|Zosima gilliana |Rech.f. & Riedl
|Zosima korovinii |Pimenov
|Zosima radians |Boiss. & Hohen. }}
Taxonomy
The genus name of Zosima is in honour of Nikolaos Zosima (1758–1842), Anastasios Zosima (1754–1828) and Zois Zosima (1764–1828), all were Greek-Russian brothers and merchants in Moscow, who supported naturalists.{{cite book | last=Burkhardt | first=Lotte | title=Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition |trans-title=Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition | publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin | year=2018 | isbn=978-3-946292-26-5 | url=https://doi.org/10.3372/epolist2018 |format=pdf |language=German |location=Berlin | doi=10.3372/epolist2018 |access-date=1 January 2021}}
It was first described and published in Gen. Pl. Umbell. on page 145 in 1814.
The genus is recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Service, but they only list 1 known species, Zosima absinthiifolia.{{cite web |title=Species of Zosima Hoffm. |url=https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/taxon/taxonomyspecieslist?id=13068&type=genus |website=npgsweb.ars-grin.gov |access-date=18 January 2022}}
Uses
Zosima absinthiifolia (bara gwathak or gwathak) has been used in folk medicine in Pakistan, the stem and leaves are crushed into a powder and used to treat indigestion and stomach ache.Umberto Quattrocchi {{google books|-37OBQAAQBAJ|CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants: Common Names ...(2016)|page=4016}} In 2011, it was anaylised by Bahadir, O.; Citoglu, G.S.; Ozbek, H.; Dall'Acqua, S.; Hosek, J.; Smejkal, K. Hepatoprotective and TNF-alpha inhibitory activity of Zoisma absinthiifolia extracts and coumarins. Fifoterapia 2011, 82, 454–459.Marian Brestic, Marek Zivcak and Marco Landi (editors) {{google books|hkwMEAAAQBAJ|Polyphenols in Crops, Medicinal and Wild Edible Plants: From Their ... (2020)|page=92}}{{cite journal |last1=Mollaei |first1=Saeed |last2=Hazrati |first2=Saeid |last3=Lotfizadeh |first3=Vahide |last4=Dastan |first4=Dara |last5=Asgharian |first5=Parina |title=Phytochemical variation and biological activities of Zosima absinthifolia during various stages of growth |journal=International Journal of Food Properties |date=2020 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=1556–1567 |doi=10.1080/10942912.2020.1818778|doi-access=free }}