Scorzonera judaica

Scorzonera judaica, commonly called Jordanian viper's grass, Judean viper's grass, or what was earlier known as salsify, is a species of geophyte of the family Asteraceae. It is native to the eastern Mediterranean as far as Afghanistan.

Description
Scorzonera judaica is a perennial herbaceous plant with a cylindrical rhizome ending in a globose tuber. It bears a yellow inflorescence which, in Israel, blossoms between January and April. The petals are connate and tongue-shaped.

The plant lacks an inflorescence stem, and its flowers grow on long spikes (8–10 cm) that grow out of a rosette of elongated leaves. The rosette of leaves grows immediately following the first rains. The leaves are elongated, glossy and narrow, and covered with long white hairs that resemble spider webs (also the flower spikes and the involucral bracts of the inflorescence are covered with hairs).

What is special about the plant are actually its seeds, which are hairy all over their surface and have a feathery tuft. Upon ripening, the seeds disperse at once in the wind, and look like cotton balls dancing in the wind.

Distribution
Scorzonera judaica has a broad geographical area, stretching from the sub-desert and steppe regions of the western part of the Irano-Turanian Region: Anatolia, Transcaucasus, Syria, Israel, Jordan, northern Egypt, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.

Uses
The taproots of this herb are edible and eaten raw when young, but when the plant grows older they require either cooking or roasting before they can be eaten. The vegetable root (salsify) is harvested in the autumn of the first or second year. The roots, once dug up, were thoroughly rinsed, cut into sections and boiled in salt water for a few minutes, before being sautéed in a frying pan with a dash of olive oil. A palatable soup can be made from 20 roasted corms, flavored with spring onions, olive oil and a dash of salt.

Additional reading

 * Bader A., De Tommasi N., Cotugno R., Braca, A. (2011). "Phenolic compounds from the roots of Jordanian viper's grass, Scorzonera judaica", Journal of Natural Products 74(6), pp. 1421–1426