MUSTARD SEED: A MYTH, APHORISM OR MISIDENTIFICATION

Botany

Mustard was perceived to be the smallest seed in the world that will eventually grow to become one of the greatest trees of the field. This perception was created because of the parable of the mustard seed and the kingdom of God told by Our Lord Jesus. Ever since, theologians, botanist, historians and other groups of professionals have tried to explain this parable using plants in the genus Brassica from the family Brassicaceae. Morphological analysis and life cycle of plant from this family shows that they did not satisfy the main word in the aforementioned parable because most plant in the family are forbs (herbaceous) there by complete their life cycle within one year. Another plant in the family cleomaceae or capparidaceae, bear the common name mustard. This plant also does not fit in as taxonomic evidence shows that it is as well herbaceous, an ephemeral or annual plant. Some plants in the genus Eucalyptus satisfies the description of the plant which the parable used, in describing the magnitude of the kingdom of God. Eucalyptus camaldulensis which belongs to the family myrtaceae, this plant has the characteristics that satisfies the Similitude in the parable of the kingdom of God and the mustard seed. As seen in the result of this study (see table 1) Eucalyptus camaldulensis is majorly domicile in catholic missions though introduced by foreign missionaries but the reason for their introduction cannot be ascertained yet. Brassica juncea was also introduced by foreign missionaries and known by most respondents compared to Eucalyptus camaldulensis. The seeds of Eucalyptus camaldulensis are approximately 1 mm each, the seedlings are slow growing reaching a height of 0.9 cm after 2 weeks of germination, the mature tree attain a height of over 50 m after 20 years (see plate 1). This plant is very common in monasteries catholic churches established by Europeans in Nigeria.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.