An evolutionary oddity
Along the salt-blasted coasts of Malta, a strange, blood-red growth pushes up through the saline soil. It is Cynomorium coccineum, a plant that has deceived people for centuries. Lacking leaves and chlorophyll, its club-shaped, 15–30 cm tall inflorescence looks more like a fungus than a flowering plant, earning it the misnomer "Maltese Mushroom". This organism is a holoparasite, meaning it depends on a host for survival. It spends most of its life as an underground rhizome attached to the roots of salt-tolerant plants like saltbushes (Atriplex species).
The plant only emerges from the ground in the spring after winter rains to flower. Its dense, fleshy spike is covered in thousands of tiny scarlet flowers, which can be male, female, or hermaphroditic. These flowers emit a sweet, cabbage-like odor that attracts flies for pollination. Once pollinated, the spike darkens to black and produces small, nut-like fruits. The plant's evolutionary placement was long debated due to its highly modified parasitic form. For years it was placed in the Balanophoraceae family. Modern genetic sequencing resolved this in 2016, placing it in its own family, Cynomoriaceae, within the order Saxifragales.
The fungus of the knights
The Knights of St. John, who ruled Malta from 1530 to 1798, held Cynomorium coccineum in extremely high regard. They called it Fungus Melitensis, or General's Root, and believed it possessed powerful medicinal properties. This belief was partly based on the "doctrine of signatures," an old medical philosophy where a plant's appearance suggested its use. The plant's red color and the reddish liquid it produces when squeezed led to its use as a styptic for staunching blood from wounds and treating internal bleeding. Its phallic shape suggested it could treat venereal diseases and other reproductive issues.
The Knights primarily harvested the plant from a single, 60-meter-high limestone islet off the coast of Gozo, now known as Fungus Rock or General's Rock. They valued it so highly that in 1746, Grand Master Pinto declared the rock off-limits, smoothing its sides to make it harder to climb. A guard was posted, and anyone caught illegally harvesting the plant faced a three-year sentence as a galley slave or even prison. The Knights used a precarious cable-car basket to cross the 50-meter gap from the mainland to collect the plant. Dried and powdered, it was used to treat dysentery and ulcers, and was sent as a precious gift to European monarchs and nobility.
While modern science has not substantiated most of its historical "cure-all" claims, chemical analysis has identified numerous bioactive compounds. Cynomorium contains gallic acid, anthocyanic glycosides, and triterpenoid saponins, which have antioxidant and astringent properties that could explain its traditional use in wound care. Today, the plant is rare and legally protected in the Maltese Islands.