Silphium grew in a narrow strip of coast near Cyrene, in what is now Libya, and could not be cultivated — every attempt to farm it failed. It was used across the ancient Mediterranean as a contraceptive and abortifacient, traded by weight against silver, and stamped on Cyrene’s coins for centuries.
Pliny the Elder records that by his lifetime a single stalk had been found in years, and that it was sent to the emperor Nero as a curiosity. The plant is generally considered the first species documented to have been harvested to extinction, and no living specimen has ever been identified with certainty.
