Introduction

THIS BOOK PROVIDES accurate information to help identify, grow, and use hundreds of herbs. Although it draws heavily on scientific research from around the world, it is tempered by personal gardening experience and written in a simple understandable style.

No single book is big enough to describe all the plants called herbs, so we have focused on herbs that are most common in home gardens, catalogs, restaurants, and markets (or should be). For the purpose of this book, we define an herb as any temperate climate herbaceous or woody plant used for flavor or fragrance. This excludes a wide range of herbs for medicine, dyes, fibers, insecticides, soap, and rubber.

We believe our range, while limited, remains wide. Old favorites, such as basil, dill, parsley, coriander, lavender, mint, sage, rosemary, tarragon, and thyme are included in detail and many species that have not reached a wide audience are included. Among the unusual or hard to find herbs are rau rImagem or Vietnamese cilantro (Persicaria odorata), which immigrated to the United States along with the airlift of 140,000 Vietnamese in 1975. Another cilantro-flavored ethnic herb, papaloquelite (Porophyllum ruderale subsp. macrocephalum), comes from south of the border. This nine-foot marigold relative has been used in Mexican cooking for centuries but only entered Texan cuisine around 1990.

The Encyclopedia of Herbs grew from our frustration with the superficial treatment of our favorite herbs and the gross errors about them in many popular herb books (a recent one erroneously claimed that dill “resembles fennel in appearance and aroma”). We have spent years searching for thorough, unbiased research to dispel many cultivation myths perpetuated by four centuries of misinformation.

The most interesting data we uncovered was not in the popular press but in small circulation technical books and journals where scientists use shorthand and jargon to communicate with each other. This is one of the first times that most of these research findings have been available in a non-scientific venue.

We rely on botanists and agricultural scientists for an understanding of herbs and their cultivation, and we believe that their research provides useful guidelines, but it is not infallible and should not be read as the last word on the subject. Every spring brings new revelations to the observant gardener, as well as to the careful scientists.

The first edition of this book, entitled The Big Book of Herbs and published by Interweave Press, was extremely well received, earning awards from both the International Herb Association (2001 Book Awards) and The Herb Society of America (Gertrude B. Foster Award, 2004). However, in the intervening years, amounting to almost a decade of newly published literature, new information has emerged (e.g., absinthism was probably due to adulterants, not the content of thujones) and scientific names have changed (e.g., vetiver is now Chrysopogon zizanioides). In addition, we found a number of typographical errors or species that we had inadvertently excluded (e.g., Agastache scrophulariifolia). Other sections (e.g., Pelargonium) have been completely revamped. We thank all those conscientious readers who wrote to us with these enlightenments and hope that this book will be your ultimate reference on culinary and fragrant herbs for years to come.

Many readers, from gardeners to academics, also wrote to thank us for including the references. Actually, this is not just academic show-and-tell or some sort of weird academic compulsive disorder; it protects us legally. Pay particular attention to our wording in the following chapters. In accordance with the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, we may freely (1) quote scientific literature, (2) quote ethnic or historic literature, or (3) cite how we personally use herbs. However, as soon as we use terms like “recommend,” “prescribe,” or show advocacy for consumption for herbs that are not GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, then we (and the publisher) are legally liable. Readers should pay particular attention to this when advocating herbs like sassafras, which is not GRAS and has been shown to be a pre-hepatocarcinogen; while you may not accept the scientific literature, you are legally liable if you advocate its consumption and somebody does develop liver cancer (which may not even be related to the consumption of sassafras). In our litigious society today, this warning is not just scientific arrogance, and even if you win a legal suit, you still have to pay lawyers in most states and go through the hassle and time. When we make a statement, such as garlic being antifungal, we have cited scientific papers to support that statement. Herbs also fight a long uphill battle to prove their efficacy. Popular medical journals will publish poorly conducted research that shows negative effects, and the popular press will subsequently seize upon this, disregarding the many other well-conducted positive studies. We also hope that these references will prompt readers to locate the original scientific literature from their libraries and investigate a topic further to make their own well-informed decisions, and if we have inspired at least one student to research a topic further, then we have succeeded.

How to Use the Book

In this book we have attempted to update the lore of the past with current horticultural practices from around the world to prepare you for the garden of your life. The book is arranged in two large sections. The first section provides a detailed overview of herb growing, harvesting, and preserving techniques.

The second section is an alphabetized listing intended to equip you with the details to identify, understand, cultivate, care for, and use herbs of flavor and fragrance. Each entry is filled with detailed descriptions and histories of individual herbs. A typical entry provides the plant’s botanical name and family, whether it is an annual or perennial, and its height, hardiness, light requirements, water consumption, required soil type and pH. The plant’s name in various languages is included, as is a history of the plant, its chemistry, how to propagate the plant, and its culinary and landscape uses. A botanical key is given to identify the plant, and its description includes its country of origin and various data on the leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds.

Who We Are

We have known the thrill of discovery in the garden and share a longstanding passion for cultivating the earth, and between us we have over eighty years of dirty knees. Art is Dr. Tucker to his students and many others. He spends much of his time in the highly technical milieu of a botanist who has specialized in the identification and chemistry of herbs. He has published and lectured widely and has a list of degrees that ends in a Ph.D. from Rutgers.

Tom had a more checkered career. He was a reformed journalist who since 1976 has been a commercial grower and seller of herb plants and has written for numerous publications about herbs. While Art has familiarity with Latin, French, German, and “Botanese,” Tom needed translations of all four. Tom’s expertise was passed onto his son, Francesco, upon Tom’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, and Francesco has continued the tradition.

We both marvel at the intense interest that Americans have shown recently in herbs. Pollsters estimate that over 6 million U.S. households grow herbs and they found that over half of the nation’s population recognized garlic, parsley, dill, chives, and basil. Commercial growers responded to this increasing hunger with record fresh herb harvests. All this interest helped to fuel new research and made this book possible and more worthwhile.

Our aim has been to fill a gap between the highly technical scientific research of herbs and the homey, anecdotal approach bathed in generalities. We set out to compile diverse information and offer it in a single volume that will appeal to a wide range of gardeners and specialists, from home gardeners to commercial growers as well as professional horticulturists and academics. We think of this book, in a modest way, as a modern, updated version of the great herbals of the past. We hope that it will encourage more Americans, and others around the globe, to successfully grow and enjoy these beautiful and useful plants.