Plant Stories: Cyclamen History

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Today we are doing another installment of Plant Stories. This one is for cyclamen, these beauties here that you see. They are very common in the winter months to grow them indoors because they like cool conditions. I have another video on keeping them looking beautiful indoors and how to even get them to rebloom next year; I’ll put the link for that below.

Now we’re going to talk about their history and some interesting factoids about them. Cyclamen is a genus of more than 20 species of flowering perennial herbs of the mercene family. The Cyclamen persicum is the best-known species; it’s notable as an indoor plant and is cultivated for its beautiful blooms that come in white, as you see here, red, and this beautiful fuchsia. There are also pink and yellow varieties, and some even have a lovely green color. So there’s just a lot of vibrant, beautiful flowers that come from the cyclamen—a gorgeous plant!

Also, you see there are the beautiful heart-shaped leaves that have mottled silver in them, so they are definitely eye-catchers. These are miniatures, which I’m going to be using in some terrariums coming up, showing you how to plant terrariums. There are also standard size cyclamens with bigger leaves and bigger flowers, but they have the same lovely look.

The cyclamen grows from a tuber, which is a short underground stem. They don’t have any stem above ground; the leaves come out of the top of the soil.

Cyclamen have beautiful silvery foliage, and the miniatures stay pretty small. The larger plants obviously get somewhat larger than this, but they aren’t humongous plants. They fill up a nice basket or pot nicely for you. The standard varieties originate from the Middle East. Cyclamen persicum naturally grows in countries such as Palestine, Syria, Israel, Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, and even Mediterranean islands like Sicily. However, interestingly, it does not grow in Iran, which was ancient Persia, even despite its name, persicum.

That’s kind of a funny little thing, and why it’s not really well known why it was named persicum. However, it was introduced in Europe at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century. Horticulturalists believe that the Persians first cultivated the plant 3,000 years ago.

The word cyclamen comes from Greek, and the plant was used for medicinal purposes by Greek military and surgeons. Cyclamen comes from the Greek word kuklos, which refers to the round and flattened shape of the leaves and its tuber. It’s mentioned that cyclamen is an ancient flower; some researchers have even seen drawings of them in prehistoric cave art.

They’ve been around for a long time, even if people aren’t exactly sure how long and where. However, it was definitely known by a first-century Greek surgeon and naturalist named Dioscorides, who wrote of the plant’s therapeutic value. In the 16th century, an Italian traveling in Greece discovered manuscripts written by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, and he published them in 1559. One of the chapters in his publication was devoted to the medicinal uses of cyclamen.

Some of the recommendations for the use of the plant were the following: they suggested juicing the root and then inhaling it through the nose to clear up the sinuses, especially in cases of sinus infections. Squeezing the juices from the roots was then cooked until thickened like honey and used for blemishes and boils on the skin. It was said to help with sunburn and even promote hair growth.

You can see all kinds of uses here. It was also recommended to drink it to counteract any poisoning that might have occurred—who knows what was going on there—but also suggested beating the roots into little flat cakes, which were said to be good for aphrodisiac purposes. This gives you a good idea of the many uses of cyclamen over the centuries.

It was a little bit neglected in the 18th century but became fashionable again in France and some European countries in the 1900s. Since 1860, it has been cultivated for indoor growing, and they have been working hard on various hybrids, resulting in many pretty hybrids that combine various colors and tones.

Cyclamen has also been associated for centuries with Valentine’s Day and various matters of the heart. It has heart-shaped leaves, which are much more pronounced on the larger standard variety, but you can still see it in the smaller varieties. Of course, we have the red associated with Valentine’s Day as well.

It is said that the Greeks used cyclamen to prepare an amorous food that made the person who ate the little flat cake fall in love with someone else—hopefully, they fell for the right person after eating that little cake! They also believed it could cure baldness and help with speedy deliveries of babies.

However, the tubers do contain toxic compounds called saponins, which can lead to diarrhea if consumed raw, especially in large quantities. Therefore, all preparations must be cooked; you would not want to eat them raw. You would be better off just getting some regular food from your kitchen and simply admiring these beautiful flowers in your indoor garden.

These little factoids are very fun to share with people, especially if someone comes and says, “Wow, what a beautiful plant! What is that?” Now you know all kinds of interesting things about cyclamen over the centuries.

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