Have you sown your nigella seeds? Would you have any left for a trade? Check my seed list, thanks.

I have some old ones, but have no idea if they're still good.

If you find cumin seeds in a grocery store-they are very similar.

Cumin???

Cumin is a spice from the same family as Nigella.

I had no idea! Thanks for the info, Caroline!

It's more accurate to say that Black cumin is a spice from the same family as Nigella. I don't think the regular grocery store cumin is the same (Cuminum cyminum). Whole seeds are unmistakeably different. Ground Black cumin is black. The ground cumin in my cupboard is golden-brown. The two species (Nigella nad Cuminum) smell very similar, but are not at all related, and the the two plants also look very different.

Cumin seeds look like fennel seed (closely related) on the left, and Nigella sativa look similar to Nigella hispanica on the right. Photos of seeds of the actual species are readily available on the web. Even wikipedia has correct images:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

Huh. Interesting.

Nigella flowers are so pretty and the foliage so dainty. They just reseed too much for me so I stopped growing them. I still get an occasional volunteer which I allow then I usually regret it the next year. I never can keep them deadheaded adequately.

Karen

Ah.... there is more than one!
Thanks for differentiating them for us.
Need to watch for the black seeds.

Well, I'd never heard of nigella as a spice. And cumin plants look very different from the nigella I grow! Hence my confusion. And I'd never heard of black cumin either. Learn something new every day!

I used to work for a bakery that made a rye bread they called Chernuska Rye. It was a rye with nigella seeds. Years later when I wanted to grow Love-In-A-Mist I wondered if it was the same kind of Nigella seeds.

Love-in-a-Mist is Nigella damascena. The seeds they use in baking are Nigella sativa. We don't have any photos of Nigella sativa in the database (at least, not that I found). But there are two members who say they have it. Gotta work on @greene and @SongofJoy

http://www.zingermans.com/Prod...

Woofie thank you so much for that info!

When I first got into gardening about 6 or 7 years ago I learned all the Latin names from the get go. Mostly from studying seed and flower catalogs all winter long. And I used to have the most amazingly organized spread sheets with everything I grew. My mom who has been gardening forever sometimes had no clue what I was talking about because she mostly knew common names, or sometimes just the name she grew up hearing.

But as my gardens grew I got too busy and then had less time and energy to devote to the record keeping!

Now I can barely even remember the common names for things, let alone the Latin!

I sometimes have trouble remembering the Latin names, but I try to keep my records that way, because the common names can be sooooo confusing! I just recently realized that there are two or three different plants with the common name of Rose Mallow. I try to familiarize myself with the common names, just so I can avoid watching people's eyes glaze over when I talk about plants. And then there are those times when my tiny mind goes blank and I can't remember either!
Ha! This thread has gone a long way from piksihk's original request for seeds (but she posted the same request on another thread and I think she's ok.) But it's certainly interesting! I may have to try getting some of those Nigella sativa seeds to try in some bread. They sound yummy!

Woofie,
I think Frontier Herbs may have them online

@woofie, I heard my name!

I had (or have?) some Nigella sativa seeds which I offered during the Piggy Seed Swap; let me get organized to see if there are any packages leftover. The seed I had/have is also called Kala jeera/Kalonji, Black seed and/or Black cumin. During the swap I sent some seeds to @risingcreek, @wildlfowers and @mistirose, so whenever Spring and summer decide to make an appearance they may also be able to contribute photos or seeds.

This link has a photo of both cumin and nigella seeds so you can see the difference.
http://paridevita.com/2013/01/...

Here is another good link:

http://www.permies.com/t/30258...

Hmmm, that Nigella sativa flower looks a whole lot like my Nigella hispanica "African Bride," which I dearly love. Oh boy, I can grow them for both seeds and flowers!

If anyone would like Nigella hispanica seeds, they can treemail me with their address. Piksihk gets first dibs, if she first tells me where that usename came from . Ground Nigella hispanica only faintly smells of cumin.

I have no idea how easily the species cross. Not knowing, if I were to grow N. sativa for spice harvest, I wouldn't grow any other Nigella species.

Rick, I've T-mail you.