Fumaria officinalis, the common fumitory, drug fumitory or earth smoke, is a herbaceous annual flowering plant in the poppy family Papaveraceae. It is the most common species of the genus Fumaria in Western and Central Europe. Description It is an herbaceous annual plant that grows weakly erect and scrambling, with stalks about long. It has slender green leaves. Its pink flowers appear from April to October in the northern hemisphere, or May to September in the UK. They are two lipped and spurred, with sepals running a quarter the length of the petals. The plant commonly has more than 20 and up to 60 flowers per spike. The fruit is an achene containing one seed. It is approximately globular, slightly wider than high and with an apical notch. It contains alkaloids, potassium salts, and tannins and is also a source of fumaric acid. Taxonomy It was first formally described by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in his seminal publication 'Species Plantarum' on page 700, in 1753. There are 2 known subspecies: Fumaria officinalis subsp. cilicica (Hausskn.) Lidén Fumaria officinalis subsp. wirtgenii (Koch) Arcang. Etymology The "smoky" or "fumy" origin of its name comes from the translucent color of its flowers, giving them the appearance of smoke or of hanging in smoke, and the slightly gray-blue haze color of its foliage, also resembling smoke coming from the ground, especially after morning dew. The plant was already called (smoke of the earth) in the early 13th century, and two thousand years ago, Dioscorides wrote in () and Pliny the Elder in that rubbing the eyes with the sap or latex of the plant causes tears, like acrid smoke () does to the eyes. Its Greek name is kapnos (, for smoke) and the name fumewort now applies mostly to the genus Corydalis, especially the similar looking Corydalis solida (formerly Fumaria bulbosa), which was thought to belong to the same genus as fumitory. Distribution and habitat It is native to temperate regions of North Africa, Europe and parts of Western Asia. Range It is found in North Africa, within Macaronesia, Canary Islands, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. Within Western Asia it is found in the Caucasus, Cyprus, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Siberia, Syria and Turkey. In eastern Europe, it is found within Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. In middle Europe, it is in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland.