Terrestrial Tribule

The terrestrial tribule ( Tribulus terrestris L.), also called cross-of-Malta , is a plant belonging to the family of the Zygophyllacée S, of which it is one of the rare representatives in Europe. It is the principal listed species of the kind Tribulus , to which also Tribulus cistoides L belongs., West-Indian species. Native in the Mediterranean, the terrestrial tribule was regarded a long time as a bad grass. Since the years 1980, one allots to his fruits, wrongly or rightly, a favorable effect on the athletic performances and the libido, so that the extract of tribule is consumed today as well by the athletes eager to improve their results as by in love ones in search of prowesses.

Names of the plant

The word tribulus indicates in Latin a trap, traps with several points. It evokes the aspect of the fruits to the not very pleasant points for the feet. The qualifier terrestris applies to plants pushing to the ground, in particular with crawling plants. It is also the fruit which is at the origin of the popular name cross-of-Malta : seen of lower part, with its spines, it resembles very clearly a Maltese cross which would have five branches.

French vernacular names: cross-of-Malta, escarbot, tribule terrestrial .

German: Erd-Bürzeldorn . English: puncturevine . Castilian: abrojo terrestrial . Italian: tribolo common .

Description

Very hairy annual plant, with more or less silver plated hairs. Stem crawling, rather little ramified, which can reach 50 cm. Many paripinnate sheets, generally with six pairs of oval leaflets with margin surrounded by long white hairs (the number of pairs of leaflets varies from five to eight). Flowers yellow of small size (< 1 cm), pédonculées and recluses with the armpit of the sheets, side and alternate along the stem. Chalice with five narrow sepals, corolla with five petals rounded. Ten cheesecloths with yellow nets and anthères, ovary supère. Spangled fruit with five carpelles warted carrying each one two long spines and two smaller. Those make it possible the species to be propagated using animals in the legs of which these spines can be planted, and which can thus in spite of them transport seed on long distances. In addition, this floating fruit often moves on short distances at the time of strong storms, because the plant pushes readily on compact grounds with low instantaneous permeability.

Characteristics

Standard of inflorescence: side solitary flower
distribution of the sexes: Standard hermaphrodite
of pollination: entomogame
Period of flowering: April at September

seed:

Standard of fruit: capsule
Mode of dissemination: épizoochore

Habitat and distribution:

standard Habitat: waste lands annual, nitrophiles, thermophilous
Surface of distribution: cosmopolitan (thermo)

given according to: Julve, pH., 1998 FF. - Baseflor. Botanical, ecological and chorologic index of the flora of France. Version: April 23rd, 2004.

Use

Phenomenon of mode or medical reality, the extract of the fruit of tribule is avoided many virtues. It would have made it possible in years 1980 the Bulgarian haltérophiles to improve their performances without having recourse to doping products. Ten years later, it becomes a miracle cure to improve sexuality, whether it is male or female. It would be also effective in the treatment of the coronary diseases.

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