Nigella

thumb|Nigella damascena seed capsule Nigella is a genus of about 25 species of annual or biennial plants in the family Ranunculaceae, native to Macaronesia, southern and central Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Common names applied to members of this genus are nigella, devil-in-a-bush or love-in-a-mist.

The species grow to tall, with finely divided leaves; the leaf segments are narrowly linear to threadlike. The flowers are white, yellow, pink, pale blue or pale purple, with five to ten petals. The fruit is a capsule composed of several united follicles, each containing numerous seeds; in some species (e.g. Nigella damascena), the capsule is large and inflated.