Silphium (also known as laserwort or laser; Ancient Greek: σίλφιον, sílphion) is an unidentified plant that was used in classical antiquity as a seasoning, perfume, aphrodisiac, and medicine.
It was an essential item of trade from the ancient North African city of Cyrene and was so critical to the Cyrenian economy that most of their coins bore an image of the plant. The valuable product was the plant's resin, called in Latin laserpicium, lasarpicium or laser (the words Laserpitium and Laser were used by botanists to name genera of aromatic plants, but the silphium plant is not believed to belong to these genera).
The exact identity of silphium is unclear. It was claimed to have become extinct in Roman times. It is commonly believed to be a relative of giant fennel in the genus Ferula. The extant plant Thapsia gummifera has been suggested as another possibility. Another theory is that it was simply a high quality variety of asafoetida, a common spice in the Roman...
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