3 ms·

More commonly called "silphium" -- for the benefit of those searching for past HN threads, https://hn.algolia.com/?query=silphium&type=all https://hn.algolia.c

• layer8 4y ago
  Amusingly, another name for it is “laser”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium
  • rnhmjoj 4y ago
    Laser is thought to refer to some product derived but not entirely made out of this plant. I can't find the source right now, but I remember reading a theory that argued that the plant never actually went exctict. Instead, the technique for producing the flavour of laserpicium the romans loved (it was also produced in Greece and elsewhere, but it was somewhat different) was simply lost after they took over the productions in Cyrene.