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Nigella damascena
Ranunculaceae FAMILY

Nigella damascena

Nigella damascena

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

The oil contains about 9% damascenine, an alkaloid causing the blue colour, with mildly narcotic properties[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual
Growth—

An easily grown plant, succeeding in any good garden soil, preferring a sunny position[2, 3]. Plants are fast-growing[4] and often self-sow if the ground is disturbed by some means such as hoeing[PFAF]. They can spread from cultivation and sometimes become weeds in disturbed places such as rubbish dumps and waste ground, but there is no evidence that they invade native habitats[PFAF]. The flowers are very attractive to bees[3]. A greedy plant, inhibiting the growth of nearby plants, especially legumes[5].

Propagation

Seed - sow spring or early autumn in situ[2]. The autumn sowing might not be successful in harsh winters. Plants can be transplanted if necessary[6]. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Nigella+damascena>

Pollinators

Bees

References

  1. [1]Plant Resources of Southeast Asia — http://proseanet.org/ ↩︎Lots of information on the uses of the plants of SE Asia.
  2. [2]RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 — F. Chittendon. · Oxford University Press · 1951 · ISBN - ↩︎Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaced in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [ 200 ]).
  3. [3]Garden Plants Valuable to Bees. — International Bee Research Association. · International Bee Research Association. · 1981 · ISBN - ↩︎The title says it all.
  4. [4]The RHS Gardener's Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers — Brickell. C. · Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd. · 1990 · ISBN 0-86318-386-7 ↩︎Excellent range of photographs, some cultivation details but very little information on plant uses.
  5. [5]How to Enjoy your Weeds. — Hatfield. A. W. · Frederick Muller Ltd · 1977 · ISBN 0-584-10141-4 ↩︎Interesting reading.
  6. [6]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  7. [7]Flora of N. America — http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/fna/ ↩︎An on-line version of the flora with an excellent description of the plant including a brief mention of plant uses.
  8. [8]Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. — Hedrick. U. P. · Dover Publications · 1972 · ISBN 0-486-20459-6 ↩︎Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.
  9. [9]The Vegetable Garden. — Vilmorin. A. · Ten Speed Press · ISBN 0-89815-041-8 ↩︎A reprint of a nineteenth century classic, giving details of vegetable varieties. Not really that informative though.
  10. [10]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
  11. [11]Flowers of Europe - A Field Guide. — Polunin. O. · Oxford University Press · 1969 · ISBN 0192176218 ↩︎An excellent and well illustrated pocket guide for those with very large pockets. Also gives some details on plant uses.
  12. [12]Herbs of Greece. — Niebuhr. A. D. · Herb Society of America. · 1970 · ISBN - ↩︎A pleasant little book about Greek herbs.
  13. [13]Encyclopaedia of Herbs and their Uses. — Bown. D. · Dorling Kindersley, London. · 1995 · ISBN 0-7513-020-31 ↩︎A very well presented and informative book on herbs from around the globe. Plenty in it for both the casual reader and the serious student. Just one main quibble is the silly way of having two separate entries for each plant.
  14. [14]Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants (Including the Supplement). — Chopra. R. N., Nayar. S. L. and Chopra. I. C. · Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. · 1986 · ISBN - ↩︎Very terse details of medicinal uses of plants with a wide range of references and details of research into the plants chemistry. Not for the casual reader.
  15. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎