Crambe

This article is about the plant genus. For the English village, see Crambe, North Yorkshire. For other uses, see Crambe (disambiguation).

Crambe
Crambe maritima in Estonia
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Brassicales
Family: Brassicaceae
Genus: Crambe
L.
Species

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Crambe is a genus of annual and perennial flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae, native to a variety of habitats in Europe, Turkey, southwest and central Asia and eastern Africa. They carry dense racemes of tiny white or yellow flowers on (mostly leafless) stems above the basal leaves.[1] Crambe hispanica subsp. abyssinica, formerly known as Crambe abyssinica, is grown for the oil from the seeds that has characteristics similar to whale oil.

The word "crambe" derives, via the Latin crambe, from the Greek κράμβη, a kind of cabbage.[2]

Crambe species are used as food plants by the larvae of the weevil Lixus canescens (Coleoptera)[3] and some Lepidoptera species including the lime-speck pug.

  1. ^ RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN 978-1405332965.
  2. ^ Shorter Oxford English dictionary, 6th ed. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. 2007. p. 3804. ISBN 978-0199206872.
  3. ^ Skuhrovec, J. & Volovnik, S. (2015) Biology and morphology of immature stages of Lixus canescens (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Lixinae). Zootaxa, 4033(3): 350-362.