Named in Capitulare de villis
Black cumin
Nigella sativa
What was written
The Capitulare de villis orders the planting of git, which is Nigella sativa. The name is a good illustration of why identifying the plants on these lists is work rather than translation: git meant this plant to a ninth-century clerk and means nothing to a modern reader, and several entries on the same list are still argued over.
The plant itself
An annual of the buttercup family with finely divided thread-like leaves and pale blue flowers, followed by an inflated capsule holding angular black seeds. It is not related to cumin despite the English name.
Still growing
Since the plant was written into that garden list, botanists, herbaria and ordinary observers have recorded finding it 1,468 times.
Live count from GBIF, cached for a week.