spice basil
spice basil
Although listed as O. micranthum in many manuals, O. campechianum has priority of publication. Campeche is the name of a state and town in Mexico. This is a basil native to the New World, where it is called albahaca, albahaca cimarrona (Puerto Rico), albahaca silvestre (Guatemala), or albahaca montés (El Salvador). In the Lesser Antilles it goes by balm, fon basin, or fonboysa. It may be cultivated in Latin America but is often gathered from the wild for culinary and medicinal uses. This basil is cultivated in North America as “Peruvian basil.”
This annual to 2 feet (60 cm) is very similar to sweet basil, differing in minute botanical characteristics. However, it can be easily distinguished from sweet basil by the brown nutlets (black in sweet basil) and the straight hairs (curved in sweet basil). Cultivation is as for O. basilicum.
Important chemistry: The essential oil from the leaves of O. camphechianum has 16 to 52 percent iso-eugenol, 4 to 23 percent 1,8-cineole, 11 to 23 percent beta-caryophyllene, and 4 to 23 percent beta-elemene, providing a eucalyptus-carnation odor.
lemon basil
Lemon basil is a hybrid series derived from O. basilicum × O. americanum and first introduced into the United States from Thailand about 1940. Not all these hybrids are lemon-scented as the common and specific names would indicate. We have purchased seeds or plants of this hybrid as ‘Anisatum’, “ball basil,” ‘Bush Green’, ‘Citriodorum’, ‘Dwarf Bouquet’, ‘Dwarf Italian’, ‘Green Globe’, ‘Green Ruffles’, ‘Holly’s Painted’, ‘Lemon’, ‘Minimum’, ‘Puerto Rican’, ‘Spicy Globe’, ‘Sweet Dani’, ‘Thai Lemon’, or even “sacred basil.” ‘Lesbos’, originally from Greece and introduced into cultivation by the Rev. Douglas Seidel, is a rather unique growth form for its tight column, thus providing an alternate name of ‘Greek Column’. ‘Aussie Sweetie’ is very similar but supposedly originated from Greece via Australia. The variegated version of ‘Lesbos’ has been patented (U.S. PP16,260) by Sunny Border Nurseries, Kensington, Connecticut, as ‘Pesto Perpetuo’.
Classical O. basilicum has a large fruiting calyx (6 mm long) and stems are smooth or coated with tiny hairs on two opposing sides, while classical O. americanum has a small fruiting calyx (4 to 5 mm long) and stems with hairs distributed equally around the stem. A plant with a large calyx and hairy stems or a plant with a small calyx and smooth stems most likely is a hybrid of these two species.
The oil of O. ×citriodorum has been reported to be antifungal.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of lemon basil is reported in the chemical literature as rich in 55 to 99 percent citral (geranial plus neral); a selected form is ‘Sweet Dani’ with 34 percent geranial and 22 percent neral in the leaf oil. ‘Dwarf Bouquet’ has 43 percent linalool and 10 percent beta-caryophyllene. ‘Green Ruffles’ has 35 to 43 percent methyl chavicol and 2 to 25 percent linalool. ‘Holly’s Painted’ has 35 percent linalool, 29 percent methyl chavicol, and 13 percent 1,8-cineole. ‘Aussie Sweetie’ has 9 to 49 percent trans-methyl cinnamate, 9 to 16 percent linalool, and 5 to 6 percent 1,8-cineole, while the very similar ‘Lesbos’ (‘Greek Column’) has 49 percent trans-methyl cinnamate, 13 percent linalool, 11 percent methyl eugenol, and 10 percent 1,8-cineole. ‘Puerto Rican’ has 57 percent trans-methyl cinnamate and 22 percent linalool. ‘Spicy Globe’ has 36 percent linalool and 14 percent beta-caryophyllene.
tree basil
French: basilic en erbre, basilic de Ceylan, basilic Seychelles, basilic salutair, baumier
Hindi: vriadha tulasi, ram tulsi, Hindi-ban
Thai: kaphrao-chang
This species, translated as the “very pleasing basil,” is known locally as tea bush in Africa, but it is widely cultivated in India and Latin America and by serious basil buffs in North America. This shrubby perennial can grow to almost 10 feet (3 m) high and has reddish brown nutlets that produce mucilage when placed in water.
This is also known in the trade as tree basil, shrubby basil, green basil, North African basil, or East Indian basil. The seed line currently offered in North America as East Indian basil originated in Zimbabwe and was introduced by Richters in 1982. The seed line currently offered in North America as West African basil originated in Ghana and was introduced by Richters in 1995. Two subspecies are known, subsp. gratissimum and subsp. iringense Ayobangira ex Paton. The former subspecies includes what is sometimes designated as O. viride Willd., the fever plant or mosquito plant, also called thé de Gambie in French. Other species cited in the essential-oil literature, such as O. caillei A. Chev., O. dalabense A. Chev., O. suave Willd., O. trichodon Gürke, or O. urticifolium Roth, belong to this species.
Tree basil has distinct chemotypes: thyme-, clove-, lemon-, rose-, cinnamon-, and carnation/herb-scented. The clove-scented form is reputed to be antimicrobial and a mosquito repellent. The oil is an effective anti-trypanosomatid. An unnamed chemical form is reputed to be effective against ticks.
Cultivation is as for O. basilicum.
Important chemistry: Thyme-scented tree basil (sometimes designated as O. viride) has 19 to 72 percent thymol, 0 to 27 percent gamma-terpinene plus (E)-ocimene, trace to 11 percent eugenol, and 0 to 16 percent p-cymene with up to 14 percent 1,8-cineole. Cinnamon-scented tree basil has up to 67 percent ethyl cinnamate. Clove-scented tree basil (sometimes reported as O. suave or O. trichodon) has trace to 98 percent eugenol, trace to 40 percent beta-caryophyllene, trace to 26 percent (Z)-ocimene, trace to 14 percent iso-eugenol, trace to 12 percent alpha-copaene, and trace to 10 percent beta-elemene, sometimes with up to 47 percent methyl eugenol and/or 47 percent methyl isoeugenol. Superior clove-scented cultivars, named ‘Clocimum’ and ‘Clocimum-3c’, have 60 to 95 percent eugenol and moderate oil yields. Lemon-scented tree basil has 65 percent geranial plus neral and 25 percent geraniol. The rose-scented tree basil has 85 to 88 percent geraniol in the leaves. The carnation/herb-scented tree basil has 40 percent beta-caryophyllene and 30 percent germacrene D. Ethiopian plants have a leaf oil with 23 percent (Z)-beta-ocimene, 17 percent delta-cadinene, 14 percent beta-caryophyllene, and 11 percent gamma-muurolene. A pine-scented form from Nigeria (as O. suave) has 26 percent sabinene and 24 percent beta-caryophyllene.
camphor basil
Hindi: Hindi-kapur tulsi
The camphor basil is named after Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and has been introduced into Asia, Europe, South America, and North America. The overall appearance of this annual is similar to that of sweet basil, reaching 6 feet (2 m). ‘Cattail Camphor’ is probably a hybrid of this species with O. americanum. ‘African Blue’ is probably a hybrid of O. kilimandscharicum with O. basilicum ‘Dark Opal’ discovered in 1983 by Peter Borchard of Companion Plants.
The oil of camphor basil is reputedly anti-fungal.
Cultivation is as for O. basilicum.
Important chemistry: Typically the camphor basil produces 17 to 80 percent camphor and up to 42 percent linalool, 17 percent limonene, and 10 percent 1,8-cineole in the essential oil of the leaves. However, O. kilimandscharicum growing wild in Rwanda has been reported to have 62 percent 1,8-cineole, providing a eucalyptus-scented form. The oil of ‘African Blue’ has 55 percent linalool, with 12 percent camphor and 12 percent 1,8-cineole, providing a strong balsamy scent with a hint of turpentine.
holy basil
French: basilic sacré, basilic des moines
Hindi: sri tulsi (purple), Krishna tulsi (green)
Thai: kaprou/kaphrao, bai grapao
The holy or sacred basil has been known as O. sanctum in most manuals, but O. tenuiflorum, meaning “slender flowers,” is conspecific and has priority of publication. This species is seldom seen in the United States; O. americanum var. pilosum ‘Spice’ often substitutes in catalogs. We have been able to obtain O. tenuiflorum in North America only as plants labeled ‘Purple Tulsi’ and in packets of seeds from Thailand labeled “holy basil.”
‘Spice’ is generally hairy, with long, thin hairs on the stems, leaves, calyces, and flower stalks. While often confused with holy basil in the seed trade, no morphological characteristics relate these two species. The large leaves, elongate inflorescence, stalked bracts, and mucilaginous nutlets serve as distinguishing characters to separate ‘Spice’ from O. tenuiflorum. Holy basil occurs in both green- and purple-leaved forms.
Studies on the uses of holy basil have, unfortunately, rarely designated the chemotype used. Medicinal uses of holy basil have shown some promise in a variety of experimental areas, but many claims should be viewed as more hype than good science until replicated and correlated with chemotype. Leaves of holy basil have an antifertility effect when ingested, according to one researcher, but more research is needed. An ethanolic extract of holy basil has been reported to reduce blood glucose in rats and is reported to prevent smooth-muscle spasms, while a crude aqueous extract has been shown to potentiate hexobarbitone-induced hypnosis in mice. The leaf extract may have radioprotective effects. In addition, some adaptogenic (antistress) activity of holy basil has been reported on experimental animals. Holy basil has also been reported to enhance the physical endurance and survival time of swimming mice, prevent stress-induced physical ulcers in rats, and protect mice and rats against the liver toxicity induced by carbon tetrachloride. Holy basil also promotes glucose utilization different from the action of insulin. The eugenol and methyl eugenol content impart an antifungal, antibacterial, and anthelmintic activity to the oil of holy basil. The fixed oil of the seeds is anti-inflammatory, reduces fevers, and relieves pain. Leaves of O. tenuiflorum also repel mosquitoes.
Ocimum tenuiflorum
Cultivation is as for O. basilicum.
Important chemistry: Lemon-scented holy basil has about 70 percent gernial plus neral. The clove-scented holy basil has 13 to 86 percent methyl eugenol and 3 to 34 percent beta-caryophyllene, sometimes with up to 23 to 62 percent eugenol, 10 to 14 percent caryophyllene oxide, and 12 percent beta-elemene. The anise-scented holy basil has trace to 19 percent 1,8-cineole plus (Z)-ocimene, 15 to 87 percent methyl chavicol, and 0 to 11 percent beta-bisabolene. The medicinal-spicy-scented holy basil has 70 percent chavibetol (betelphenol) and 20 percent eugenol. The balsamic-scented holy basil has 30 to 33 percent beta-bisabolene, 16 to 20 percent (Z)-alpha-bisabolene, and 2 to 12 percent methyl chavicol. Holy basil from India has been reported with 17 percent beta-caryophyllene as the primary constituent.
Key:
1. Leaves pinched at tips; mouth of calyx closed after pollen-release by up-curved lower lip; median lobes of lower lip of fruiting calyx shorter than upper lip; shrubs or undershrubs................ O. gratissimum
1a. Leaves tapering to the tip or rounded; mouth of calyx more or less open after pollen-release; median lobes of lower lip of fruit calyx as long as or longer than upper lip; herbs occasionally with stems slightly woody at base........................................................................................ 2
2. Leaves tapering to the tip......................................................................... 3
3. Fruiting calyx 4 to 5 mm long................................................................... 4
4. Stems hairy, hairs directed downward or spreading, distributed equally around the stem...................................................................................... O. americanum
4a. Stems smooth or coated with tiny hairs on two opposing sides................ O. ×citriodorum
3a. Fruiting calyx 6 to 7 mm long................................................................... 5
5. Stems hairy, hairs directed downward or spreading, distributed equally around the stem............................................................................... O. ×citriodorum
5a. Stems smooth or coated with tiny hairs on two opposing faces........................... 6
6. Pedicels divergent at right angles, decurved in fruit, not clearly separated; calyx 6 to 7 mm long in fruit, with appressed, stiff, rather short hairs outside, smooth within; nutlets brown; hairs straight.................................................. O. campechianum
6a. Pedicels short, erect, calyx 6 mm long in fruit, with long, straight, stiff hairs inside; nutlets black; hairs curved................................................. O. basilicum
2a. Leaves blunt at the tip............................................................................. 7
7. Calyx tube completely smooth within; nutlets unchanged when wetted.................................................................................... O. tenuiflorum
7a. Calyx tube with a ring of hairs at the throat; nutlets mucilaginous when wet......................................................................... O. kilimandscharicum
O. americanum L., Cent. pl. I 15. 1755.
Key:
1. Stem indumentum mainly of short, retrorse, adpressed hairs with long hairs at nodes........................................................................................................... var. americanum
1a. Stem indumentum with long spreading hairs only..... var. pilosum (Willd.) Paton, Kew Bull. 47:426. 1992.
Native country: Spice and hoary basils are widely distributed in tropical and southern Africa, China, and India; naturalized in southern Europe, Australia, and tropical South America.
General habit: Spice and hoary basils are annuals or short-lived perennial herbs, 15 to 70 cm high, woody at the base.
Leaves: Leaves are narrowly egg-shaped to lance-shaped, smooth, light green, 110 to 55 × 4 to 25 cm, leaf stalk nearly half the leaf length; margin is slightly toothed.
Flowers: The inflorescence is lax, 13 to 18 cm long. Bracts, longer than the calyx, are stalked, egg-shaped, with pointed tip, glandular, hairy, with long hairs on the margins. The corolla is twice as long as the calyx, white, hairy on the outside.
Fruits/seeds: Nutlets are gray-black to black, lustrous, and show copious mucilage when moistened.
O. basilicum L., Sp. pl. 833. 1753 (including O. minimum L.).
Native country: Sweet basil is native to the Old World tropics.
General habit: Sweet basil is an annual herb, 0.5 to 1 m high, woody at the base. Stems and branches smooth or slightly hairy when young.
Leaves: Leaves membranaceous, egg-shaped to widest at the center with the ends equal, 3 to 5 cm long, tapering to the tip, base wedge-shaped, margin smooth-edged to fewtoothed, almost smooth or hairy; leaf stalk 1 to 2 cm.
Flowers: Inflorescence is simple or branched. Bracts are lance-egg-shaped, about as long as the calyx, 2 to 3 mm. Corolla is white, pinkish, or violet, twice as long as the calyx.
Fruits/seeds: Nutlets are dark brown, pitted, swelling in water.
O. campechianum Mill., Gard. dict. ed. 8. #5. 1768 (O. micranthum Willd.).
Native country: O. campechianum is native from Florida to Brazil.
General habit: Plants are essentially annual but sometimes shrubby, up to 60 cm high.
Leaves: Leaves are parallel-sided egg-shaped to broadly egg-shaped, 2 to 9 cm long, tapering or blunt at the apex, toothed or almost smooth-edged, minutely hairy to almost smooth.
Flowers: The calyx is 6 to 7 mm long in fruit. The white corolla is spotted with purple, 4 mm long.
Fruits/seeds: Nutlets are dark brown to black, tapered to a point, producing moderate to heavy mucilage in water.
O. ×citriodorum Vis., Linnaea 15:Litteratur Bericht 102. 1841 (O. citratum Rumph., O. basilicum L. var. anisatum Benth., O. dichotumum Hochst ex Benth in DC.).
Native country: According to Alan Paton and Eli Putievsky, “O. ×citriodorum refers both to the products of a cross between O. basilicum and O. americanum and to the entities produced by the doubling of the F1 chromosome number, as these forms are morphologically indistinguishable.” The type of O. ×citriodorum is probably an allohexaploid (six times the basic chromosome number in an interspecific hybrid).
General habit, leaves, flowers, and fruits/seeds: The morphological characteristics combine a range between the two closely related parents. Classical O. basilicum has a large fruiting calyx (6 mm long) and a stem that is smooth or coated with tiny hairs on two opposing sides, while classical O. americanum has a small fruiting calyx (4 to 5 mm long) and stems with hairs distributed equally around the stem.
O. gratissimum L., Sp. pl. 1197. 1753.
Native country: Tree basil is native to tropical Africa.
General habit: Tree basil is a perennial herb, 0.6 to 3 m high, woody at the base. Stem and branches are smooth, hairy when young.
Leaves: Leaves are membranaceous, lance-shaped but widest at the center with the ends equal, 1.5 to 15 × 1 to 8.5 cm, tapering to the tip, wedge-shaped base, smooth-edged at base but elsewhere coarsely toothed, hairy.
Flowers: inflorescences are simple or branched, 10 to 15 cm long. The calyx is 1.5 to 3 mm long at the time of pollen release, 3 to 4 mm long in fruit. The corolla is greenish white, 3 to 5 mm long.
Fruits/seeds: Nutlets are reddish brown, coarsely pitted, semilustrous, producing a small amount of mucilage in water.
O. kilimandscharicum Baker ex Gürke in Engl., Pflanzews. Ost.-Afrikas 4 (C):349. 1895.
Native country: Camphor basil is native to Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, introduced into Sudan.
General habit: Camphor basil is a perennial, growing to a height of about 2 m, branching repeatedly, woody at the base.
Leaves: Leaves are 15 to 55 × 10 to 30 mm, toothed, hairy, light green or gray-green, blunt-tipped. The egg-shaped leaves often fold upward, exposing the lower surfaces.
Flowers: The inflorescences are simple, up to 30 cm long. The bracts are narrow, tapering to the tip, stalked, and persistent. The calyx is similar to that of O. canum but with a very hairy upper lobe, kidney-shaped, abruptly turned back. The corolla is white, pink, or mauve, five or more times longer than the calyx.
Fruits/seeds: Nutlets are black, lustrous, pitted, with a slight ridge, with moderate mucilage in water.
O. tenuiflorum L., Sp. pl. 597. 1753 (O. sanctum L.).
Native country: This species is native to India and Malaysia, where it is revered by the Hindus as an embodiment of Tulsi, consort to the god Vishnu, but it has become widely distributed in the Pacific Islands, Africa, and Latin America.
General habit: Holy basil is a much-branched perennial, 0.3 to 1 m tall, often woody at the base. Stems and branches are soft-hairy.
Leaves: Leaves are membranaceous, widest at the center with ends equal to parallel-sided, 15 to 33 × 11 to 20 mm, tapering to the tip or blunt, with a wedge-shaped base and smooth edges, margins elsewhere smooth or moderately toothed; hairy on both surfaces, especially on the nerves beneath; leaf stalk 7 to 15 mm long.
Flowers: Bracts egg-shaped, pinched at the tip, 2 to 3 mm long, beset with a marginal fringe of hairs. The calyx is 1 to 2.5 mm long at pollen release, about 3 to 3.5 mm long in fruit. Corolla is white or pink, 3.5 to 4 mm long.
Fruits/seeds: Nutlets are minute, brown, round-oval, more or less lustrous, finely pitted, producing small amounts of mucilage when wet.
water dropwort
Family: Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)
Growth form: hardy perennial to 16 inches (40 cm) tall
Hardiness: hardy to Zone 6
Light: full sun to part shade
Water: constantly moist
Soil: rich in organic matter
Propagation: easily rooted from off sets
Culinary use: celery substitute but limited (not GRAS)
Craft use: none
Landscape use: wildflower garden, cottage garden, or edge of pond
French: fenouil d’eau, ciguë aquatique
German: Wasserfenchel, Ross-Fenchel, Pferde-Kümmel, Wasser-Kümmel
Dutch: water-venkel, watertorkruid
Italian: fellandrio, finocchio acquatico
Spanish: felandrio acuático
Chinese: shuiqin, chin-tsai, shui-ying, chu-kuei
Japanese: seri
Vietnamese: rau c
n
Hindi: ghora-ajowan
Malay: batjarongi, piopo, bamboong, pampoong
Oenanthe includes about thirty north temperate species normally found in aquatic situations. The generic name is derived from the Greek oinos, “wine,” and anthos, “flower,” or flowers with a wine-like odor.
Water dropwort is favored by many Southeast Asians as a salad herb or steamed with rice. The stalks and leaves of the plant taste and look like celery with a hint of carrot leaves, and the Japanese find this a winning combination with soups, salads, and sukiyaki.
The herb is native to pond margins, paddy fields, and wet places in China, Japan, Malaysia, India, and Australia. It is a perennial that spreads by stolons (thin, horizontal stems on the surface of the soil, just like mint). Water dropwort is far easier to grow than celery and can be potted to be maintained in the greenhouse or windowsill for winter harvests. Water dropwort prefers wet soil but will grow easily in moist garden loam and is winter hardy to at least Zone 6. Both green and red forms are known; both resemble a low celery. ‘Flamingo’ is a variegated cultivar in green, white, and pink. White flowers appear in early summer in an inverted umbrella-shaped inflorescence.
Water dropwort does not have GRAS status.
The oil of water dropwort is antifungal and antibacterial. Hepatic detoxification is enhanced by extracts of O. javanica, apparently due to the content of persicarin (3-potassium sulfate ester of isorhamnetin).
Important chemistry: The essential oil of the flowering tops of water dropwort contains 68 percent dill apiole and 14 percent beta-phellandrene.
O. javanica (Blume) DC., Prodr. 4:138. 1830 [O. stolonifera (Roxb.) Wall.].
Native country: Water dropwort is native to pond wetlands of China, Japan, Malaysia, India, and Australia.
General habit: Water dropwort is a smooth, stoloniferous perennial with erect stems to 20 to 40 cm tall.
Leaves: Leaves at 7 to 15 cm long, triangular or triangular-egg-shaped, once or twice compound, the ultimate segments egg-shaped or narrowly so, 1 to 3 cm × 7 to 15 mm, tapering to a point or almost pinched at the tip, irregularly toothed, sometimes deeply lobed.
Flowers: Flowers are white and in an umbel.
Fruits/seeds: The fruit is about 2.5 mm long with corky ribs.
marjoram
Family: Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Growth form: herbaceous perennials 14 to 39 inches (35 to 100 cm) tall
Hardiness: many only hardy to southern California (Zone 9); wild marjoram and oregano hardy to at least Pennsylvania (Zone 6)
Light: full sun
Water: moist to somewhat dry; can with stand drought when established
Soil: well-drained gravelly or rocky loam, pH 4.9 to 8.7, average 6.9 (O. majorana); 4.5 to 8.7, average 6.7 (O. vulgare subsp. vulgare)
Propagation: seeds in spring, cuttings in summer; 160,000 seeds per ounce (5,644/g) (Origanum O. majorana); 130,000 (4,586/g) (O. vulgare subsp. vulgare)
Culinary use: many entree dishes of the Mediterranean region
Craft use: wreaths, dried flowers
Landscape use: excellent for edgings, borders, or pots
Origanum is derived from the Greek for “beautiful mountain,” a reference to the usual habitat and attractiveness of the marjorams even away from the mountains. Both the flowers and foliage are pleasing accents in the garden. The aromas of the species vary from the light, clean odor of sweet marjoram to the tarry, creosotelike scent of some oreganos native to Greece. All 43 species are perennials native to Eurasia that do well in full sun and very well-drained soil; they vary, however, in sensitivity to frost. Many species of this genus, particularly the ones designated as oregano, are particularly evocative of the Mediterranean and bring back memories of rocky hillsides covered with lovely, sweet scents and sparkling flowers, along with the regional cuisine.
sweet marjoram
French: marjolaine
German: Majoran
Dutch: marjolein
Italian: maggiorana
Spanish: mejorana, amáraco
Portuguese: manjerona
Swedish: mejram
Russian: mayoran
Chinese: ma-yueh-lan-hua
Japanese: mayorana
Arabic: 
The clean, sweet odor of sweet marjoram is described by perfumers as warm-spice, aromaticcamphoraceous, and woody, reminiscent of nutmeg and cardamom. The small, gray-felty leaves and terminal heads of white flowers make this a delight in pots on the patio, as this is a tender perennial probably hardy only to Zone 9b. Thus, it must be carried over in the greenhouse or treated as an annual in most North American gardens. A form known in the trade as Origanum majorana
“Greek marjoram” or “compact Greek marjoram” is grayer, hardier, and a bit more compact in habit.
The specific epithet is derived from the Greek for marjoram. Sweet marjoram is widely used in beverages, meats, baked goods, and condiments; its leaves (1.9 to 9,946 ppm), essential oil (1 to 40 ppm), and oleoresin (37 to 75 ppm) are considered GRAS. The essential oil of sweet marjoram shows antimicrobial activity and is one of the few Origanum oils that can be used in perfumery, where it is used in fougères, colognes, and Oriental bases.
Origanum majorana
Egypt, France, and Canada are major sources of dried sweet marjoram imported into the United States. Sweet marjoram is usually grown from seeds, but in the spring greenhouse or under lights indoors, plants often succumb to root and stem diseases; cutting-grown plants are less vulnerable to these problems. A seeding density of 1 inch apart (40 plants/m) and 8 to 16 inches (20 to 40 cm) between rows is recommended for commercial production; home gardeners would probably prefer planting young plants 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 cm) apart in rows. With harvests two to four times a year, yields of 4,015 pounds per acre (4,500 kg/ha) dried leaves and 7.8 gallons per acre (73 l/ha) essential oil can be expected. Convection drying at about 113°F (45°C) preserves the best flavor of marjoram. Blanching prior to drying preserves the green color but reduces the essential oil content.
Important chemistry: Sabinene hydrate and sabinene hydrate acetate, which supply the typical odor to marjoram, are particularly labile during distillation, and analysis of solvent extracts by researchers in Germany found that the primary components of sweet marjoram odor are 36.01±17.01 cis-sabinene hydrate acetate and 32.28±16.26 cis-sabinene hydrate. The essential oil of sweet marjoram consists of 16 to 52 percent terpinen-4-ol, 0 to 43 percent (Z)-sabinene hydrate, 3 to 14 percent alpha-terpineol, trace to 20 percent gamma-terpinene, trace to 12 percent sabinene, and 2 to 10 percent linalool. Selections from Turkey have been reported with 78 to 80 percent carvacrol, providing an odor of oregano. Cultivated material in Cuba has been reported with 18 percent terpinen-4-ol, 16 percent linalool, and 12 percent thymol; another report of cultivated material in Morocco showed 33 percent linalool and 22 percent terpinen-4-ol. These latter two reports may be actually O. ×majoricum from the essential-oil profile.
hardy sweet marjoram
Hardy sweet marjoram is a hybrid of sweet marjoram (O. majorana) with wild marjoram (O. vulgare) and commonly confused with both. Depending upon the variability of the parents, hardy sweet marjoram may vary from tiny-leaved to large-leaved, light green to gray, and from sweetly scented to musky scented. The most commonly available form of hardy sweet marjoram in North America may be used in the same manner as sweet marjoram and has the appearance of a pale green sweet marjoram. The alternate name, “Italian oregano,” does not describe the sweet marjoram-like odor, although it may be a better name for increased sales at nurseries.
Hardy sweet marjoram requires the same culture as sweet marjoram but can be overwintered successfully with sunny, well-drained soil in Zone 7. While hardy sweet marjoram is somewhat sterile, it may occasionally set seeds that germinate in sandy soil.
Important chemistry: The most commonly available form of hardy sweet marjoram in North America has an oil with 17 percent cis- sabinene hydrate and 15 percent terpinen-4-ol, which supply the sweet marjoram scent; 12 percent carvacrol gives a hint of oregano. Turkish selections of hardy sweet marjoram have 26 to 27 percent cis-sabinene hydrate, and 7 to 18 percent carvacrol. Forms cultivated in South America under the synonym O. ×applii have trace to 26 percent thymol, 17 to 20 percent linalyl acetate, and 10 to 13 percent terpinen-4-ol, providing a thyme/lavender-like odor.
Spartan oregano
Spartan oregano is commonly imported with other commercial dried oregano from Turkey. The specific epithet refers to the minute flowers. While it is commercially important and widely consumed, it has yet to enter cultivation in North America. This is probably a tender perennial requiring pot culture with the overall appearance of a fuzzy, lax pot marjoram. The oil is antimicrobial. Researchers in Turkey found that oil of Spartan oregano can be used as an antimicrobial in the leather industry.
Important chemistry: The essential oil contains 75 to 84 percent carvacrol.
pot marjoram
The specific epithet is derived from a kind of Greek oregano. This tasty oregano is especially esteemed in Turkey, where the common name, translated as “balls oregano,” alludes to the shape of the inflorescence but also has Freudian significance because of its macho taste. This oregano has come in and out of the herb trade in the United States over the last fifty years; in past herb books, it was often confused with selections of O. vulgare. This finicky plant’s tenderness and cultural requirements have limited its staying power.
We culled seeds of authentic pot marjoram from commercial oregano samples in the 1970s and released it to some herb nurseries. In the 1980s, the National Herb Garden, under the leadership of Holly Shimizu, released the correctly named plant again. The latter collection had been found by a member of the Herb Society of America in a meadow on a small island as the only plant that the sheep wouldn’t eat.
The leaves vary from mildly hairy, providing a pale green color, to densely hairy, providing a gray color. This is a tender perennial requiring pot culture. The soil should be well-drained, and the pot should be terra-cotta. Provide cool, near freezing temperatures over winter under full sun. When spring arrives and new growth starts, trim back the dead or rambling growth. Alternatively, save the seeds each year and grow anew. Watch out, though. If you grow other species of Origanum nearby, you will invariably harvest hybrid seed; if you crave something new, that may be okay, but it does not preserve the original germplasm.
The oil of pot marjoram is antifungal and antibacterial, as would be expected from its high phenol (carvacrol) content.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of O. onites contains 2 to 90 percent carvacrol, 1 to 31 percent gamma-terpinene, 0 to 14 percent 1,8-cineole, and 1 to 12 percent p-cymene.
Lebanese oregano
This is the ezov (“hyssop”) of the Bible (Exodus 12:21–22, I Kings 4:33, Psalms 51:7, John 19:28–30). Samaritans traditionally used bunches of O. syriacum to sprinkle the blood of the Passover sacrifice; the hairs on the stems were reputed to prevent the coagulation of the blood. Thus, the use of branches of ezov to present the vinegar-soaked sponge to Christ just prior to his death would have been particularly symbolic. The oil of O. syriacum is antimicrobial and antioxidant, as might be expected from the high phenol (carvacrol) content.
This is similar to pot marjoram in overall appearance but more robust and with larger leaves and about as variable in leaf color, from pale green to gray. Both thyme-scented and oregano-scented forms are known. Lebanese oregano, white oregano, Syrian hyssop, and Biblical hyssop are English names attached to this species, but the Arabs call this (and a spice mixture) za’atar.
Origanum syriacum is harvested along with other oregano species in Turkey. It is a tender perennial that has not entered extensive cultivation, but a hybrid of this with O. vulgare has entered the trade simply as O. maru, a taxonomic synonym of O. syriacum, incorrectly applied. The latter hybrid has large, dark green, oregano-scented leaves and is routinely hardy to Zone 7, unlike the parental species.
Important chemistry: Rarely has the essential oil literature stated the correct botanical identification of the oregano under consideration, and investigations of O. syriacum are no exception. The essential oil of Turkish O. syriacum (i.e., var. bevanii) consists of 43 to 64 percent carvacrol and 6 to 12 percent p-cymene, sometimes with up to 25 percent thymol. The essential oil of Israeli O. syriacum (i.e., var. syriacum) consists of 12 to 44 percent thymol, 16 to 40 percent carvacrol, 11 to 15 percent gammaterpinene, and 13 to 20 percent para-cymene. The essential oil of O. syriacum from the Holy Land (i.e., var. syriacum and bevanii) consists of 1 to 80 percent carvacrol and 1 to 71 percent thymol.
wild marjoram, oregano
The six subspecies of O. vulgare are greatly confused (see the botanical keys for further diagnostic characters). The subsp. vulgare (called wild marjoram in English, origan vulgaire or marjolaine sauvage in French, and Wilder Majoran in German) is the plant that bears pretty pink flowers and purple bracts, but it is useless as a condiment, even though it is often sold as “oregano.” The subspp. virens and viridulum, also called wild marjorams, are just as useless as condiments. The subsp. glandulosum (Algerian oregano) is not often encountered in the United States. Some forms of subsp. gracile (Russian oregano) bear the typical odor of Greek oregano. The subsp. hirtum is the Greek oregano, which is now principally imported from Turkey; the harsh, creosote-like odor makes it relatively easy for any gardener with a nose to identify.
Oregano is widely used in cooking, and the leaves (320 to 2,800 ppm) are considered GRAS. Oregano essential oil is fungistatic and bacteriostatic and active against trypanosomes. The essential oil and alcoholic extract of the leaves are antioxidant. Galangin and quercetin, two flavonoids in oregano, were demonstrated to be antimutagenic in vitro against a common dietary carcinogen, Trp-P-2 (3-amino-1-methyl-5H-pyrido[4,3-b]indole). Aristolochia acid I, aristolochic acid II, and D-(+)-raffinose from O. vulgare were found to inhibit thrombin activity and to be anticarcinogenic. Leaves of O. vulgare subsp. hirtum were found by Greek researchers to be a natural herbal growth promoter for early maturing turkeys; they can also be useful to treat diarrhea in calves. Oregano oil may also be used as disinfectant for eggs.
All subspecies of O. vulgare require well-drained loam in full sun. With plants about 6 inches (16 cm) apart and rows 16 inches (40 cm) apart, yields of dried herb can achieve 2,320 to 5,424 pounds per acre (2,600 to 6,080 kg/ha) the first year and 901 to 14,944 pounds per acre (1,010 to 16,750 kg/ha) the second year. Oregano is particularly subject to sudden wilts caused by Fusarium oxysporum and F. solani.
Several cultivars of subsp. vulgare are grown. ‘Aureum’ is a very vigorous and yellow-green version. ‘Dr. Ietswaart’ has golden-yellow, almost translucent leaves that are wrinkled and circular. Both cultivars have been sold as ‘Aureum’, and the former has also been sold as ‘ Golden Creeping’. Both sometimes show irregular streaks of green and tend to become totally green late in the season or in hot weather. ‘Thumble’s Variety’ is a more compact selection of ‘Aureum’. ‘Jim Best’ (not ‘Jim’s Best’) is streaked with gold and green and quite vigorous. ‘White Anniversary’ is edged in white but not reliably hardy and prone to leaf-fungus diseases in humid climates. ‘Humile’ (‘Compactum’) is a dwarf selection of wild marjoram. Other forms of O. vulgare with varying degrees of purple bracts are sold as ‘Bury Hill’ or O. pulchellum.
Origanum vulgare subsp. vulgare
Important chemistry: The chemical literature rarely specifies the taxon beyond O. vulgare or “oregano.” The essential oil of O. vulgare subsp. vulgare usually contains trace to 39 percent thymol, trace to 31 percent terpinen-4-ol, trace to 28 percent linalool, trace to 26 percent sabinene, trace to 19 percent p-cymene, trace to 19 percent beta-caryophyllene, 0 to 17 percent (Z)-beta-ocimene, 0 to 29 percent germacrene D, trace to 14 percent beta-cubenene, trace to 11 percent gamma-terpinene, trace to 11 percent 1,8-cineole, and trace to 10 percent sabinene, providing a slight musty odor; Turkish plants have been reported with 21 percent terpinen-4-ol and beta-caryophyllene and 18 percent germacrene D, providing a musty carnation-like odor. The essential oil of O. vulgare subsp. glandulosum cultivated in Italy consists of 79 to 84 percent carvacrol. The essential oil of O. vulgare subsp. gracile contains 15 to 79 percent thymol, trace to 17 percent gamma-terpinene, trace to 14 percent sabinene, and 10 percent carvacrol, providing a pine-tar odor; Turkish plants have been reported with 18 percent beta-caryophyllene and 13 percent germacrene D, providing a musty carnation-like odor. The essential oil of O. vulgare subsp. hirtum contains trace to 81 percent carvacrol, trace to 65 percent thymol, 2 to 26 percent gamma-terpinene, and 3 to 25 percent p-cymene; the odor of this leading source of oregano has a sharp, tarry, creosotelike odor. The essential oil of O. vulgare subsp. virens contains 10 to 70 percent linalool, trace to 19 percent beta-caryophyllene, 0 to 13 percent (E)-beta-ocimene, trace to 10 percent gamma-terpinene, and 0 to 10 percent (Z)-ocimene, providing a musty lavender-basil odor. The essential oil of O. vulgare subsp. viridulum from Iran consists of 20 percent linalyl acetate and 13 percent sabinene, providing a lavender-pine odor. Essential oil of O. vulgare subsp. viridulum from the Liguria region of northern Italy have trace to 63 percent carvacrol, trace to 48 percent thymol, trace to 43 percent linalo, trace to 22 percent caryophyllene oxide, and trace to 16 percent germacrene-D-4-ol.
The calyces, which are under genetic control, are particularly important as an aid in identification.
Key:
1. Lower lip of calyces nearly absent, or the upper lip comprises 9/10 or more of the length of the calyx and appears bract-like; calyx upper lip toothless to almost toothless....................................... 2
2. Spikes arranged in flat-topped or convex open inflorescence; leaves often with small sharp teeth................................................................................................. O. onites
2a. Spikes arranged in panicles; leaves usually entire................................................... 3
3. Stems and leaves beset with minute hairs (hairs about 0.3 mm long); leaf apices blunt, veins not raised on lower surface.............................................................. O. majorana
3a. Stems and leaves with moderate coarse and stiff hairs or with dense, wool-like covering of matted, intertangled hairs (hairs about 1 mm long); leaf apices usually tapered, and veins usually raised on lower surface........................................................................ O. syriacum
1a. Lower lip of calyx obviously present, so that calyces are one- or two-lipped for one-fifth to one-half their length and tube- or funnel-shaped; calyx upper lip often with three teeth or lobes, and lower lip consisting of two teeth or lobes....................................................................... 4
4. Calyces about 2 mm long..................................................... O. minutiflorum
4a. Calyces about 2.5 to 4.5 mm long........................................................... 5
5. Bracts about 4 mm long, 3 mm wide, inconspicuously dotted with glands; calyces funnel-shaped, about 3.5 mm long, teeth of lower lip much shorter to about as long as the upper lip................................................................... O. ×majoricum
5a. Bracts 2 to 11 mm long, 1 to 7 mm wide, conspicuously punctate; calyces tube-bell shaped, 2.5 to 4.5 mm long, with 5 (sub)equal teeth...................................... O. vulgare
O. majorana L., Sp. pl. 590. 1753. (Majorana hortensis Moench).
Native country: O. majorana is native to dry, rocky (limestone) places on Cyprus and the adjacent part of southern Turkey but occurs spontaneously in the former Yugoslavia, Italy, Corsica, southern Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Algeria. It also is often found as a garden escape.
General habit: Stems are usually erect or ascending, sometimes branched at the bases, up to 80 cm long.
Leaves: Leaves are more or less stalked, roundish or egg-shaped or oval, apex usually blunt, 3 to 35 mm long, 2 to 30 mm wide, whitish or grayish, and coated with a dense wool-like covering of minute hairs; sessile glands inconspicuous.
Flowers: The inflorescence is a spike, usually three to five set closely together on a branch, slightly globe-shaped, egg-shaped, or a four-sided cylinder, 3 to 20 mm long, about 3 mm wide. Bracts are two to thirty pairs per spike, oval, egg-shaped attached at the narrow end, or diamond-shaped, apices usually blunt and smooth. Calyces are one-lipped, rather diamond-shaped, 2 to 3.5 mm long, outside more or less coated with dense wool-like covering of minute hairs; upper lips usually toothless, sometimes with small teeth. Corollas are two-lipped for about 3 to 7 mm long; white; outside coated with short, soft, straight hairs; upper lips divided into two lobes; lower lips divided into three subequal lobes.
O. ×majoricum Cambess., Mem. Mus. Paris 14:296. 1827 [incl. O. ×applii (Domin) Boros].
Native country: O. ×majoricum is probably a hybrid, O. vulgare ×O. majorana; it has inherited the hardiness of the former and the odor of the latter. It occurs naturally in Spain and Portugal but is widely cultivated.
General habit: Stems are up to 60 cm long, coated with a dense woolly covering of minute hairs (hairs about 0.5 mm long).
Leaves: Leaves are stalked, about 9 × 5 mm.
Flowers: Spikes are usually cylindrical, up to 2 cm long, about 5 mm wide, not nodding. The green bracts are about 4 mm by 3 mm. Calyces are more or less funnel-shaped, about 3.5 mm long; upper lips with somewhat triangular teeth, less than 0.4 mm long, for one-third to one-half their length. Lower lips may be much shorter up to nearly as long as the upper lips, sometimes almost toothless but usually consisting of triangular teeth, which are less than 0.7 mm long. The throats are coated with short, soft, straight hairs. Corollas are two-lipped for about one-third their length, 2.5 to 6 mm long and white.
O. minutiflorum Schwarz & Davis, Kew Bull. 1949:408. 1949.
Native country: O. minutiflorum is native to a few places in southern Turkey, where it grows on limestone at an altitude of about 1600 m.
General habit: This herb is a subshrub with erect stems up to 35 cm long, light brown, with curved and appressed hairs.
Leaves: Short-stalked green leaves occur in up to eighteen pairs per stem; they are egg-shaped or oval with tops more or less tapering to the apex or blunt at the apex and 3 to 16 mm long and 5 to 12 mm wide. They are coated with short, soft, straight hairs; sessile glands up to 150 per square cm.
Flowers: Flowering spikes are almost globe-shaped to cylindrical, sometimes rather loose at the bases, and measuring 2 to 8 mm long and about 3 mm wide. Egg-shaped to oval green bracts occur three to six pairs per spike and measure 1 to 3 mm long and 0.5 to 1.5 mm wide. The outside is coated with short, soft, straight hairs.
Calyces are two-lipped for about one-fifth their length, about 2 mm long and the outside is coated with short, soft, straight hairs. The upper lips are divided for about two-fifths their length into three almost equal and nearly triangluar teeth. The white corollas are two-lipped for about two-fifths, 2 to 4 mm long; upper lips are divided for about one-fifth into two lobes.
O. onites L., Sp. pl. 590. 1753.
Native country: O. onites is native from southern Greece to southern Turkey and is widely cultivated.
General habit: This herb is a subshrub with erect or ascending stems up to 1 m long, light brown, with moderately coarse and stiff hairs.
Leaves: Leaves occur in up to twenty-eight pairs per stem, the lower ones shortly stalked, heart-shaped, egg-shaped, or oval, more or less tapering to the apex or pinched at the tip, margins often with small teeth, 3 to 12 mm long and 2 to 9 mm wide, coated with moderately coarse and stiff hairs and with long, soft straight hairs with glands.
Flowers: Spikes are arranged in a flat-topped or convex open inflorescence, almost globe-shaped, ovoid, or four-sided cylindrical, 3 to 17 mm long and about 4 mm wide. Bracts are four to thirty-four pairs per spike; oval, egg-shaped, or egg-shaped and attached at the narrow end; toothless; 2 to 5 mm long, 1.5 to 4 mm wide; light green, outside hairy. Calyces are one-lipped for about nine-tenths; somewhat rhomboid, egg-shaped or egg-shaped and attached at the narrow end; 2 to 3 mm long; outside somewhat coated with short, soft, straight hairs. Corollas are twolipped for about two-fifths; 3 to 7 mm long; white; outside somewhat coated with short, soft, straight hairs; upper lips divided for one-tenth to one-fifth their length into two lobes.
O. syriacum L., Sp. pl. 590. 1753.
Key:
1. Stems with dense wool-like covering of matted, tangled hairs of medium length; leaves whitish............................................................................. O. syriacum var. syriacum (O. maru L.).
1a. Stems with moderate coarse and stiff hairs; leaves with a slight wool-like covering of matted, intertangled hairs of medium length, leaves greenish................................................. 2
2. Leaves about 14 by 11 mm, heart-shaped, or egg-shaped, shortly stalked (stalks about 2 mm long); corollas about 4 mm long.................................................................................................... O. syriacum var. sinaicum (Boiss.) Ietswaart, Tax. Rev. Gen. Origanum 89. 1980.
2a. Leaves about 25 by 15 mm, egg-shaped or oval, long stalked (stalks about 5 mm long); corollas about 6 mm long............. O. syriacum var. bevanii (Holmes) Ietswaart, Tax. Rev. Gen. Origanum 88. 1980.
Native country: Both O. syriacum var. syria-cum (native to Israel, Jordan, and Syria) and O. syriacum var. bevanii (native to Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, and Lebanon) are harvested as white oregano and are sometimes sold in the United States as Lebanese oregano. Origanum syriacum var. sinaicum is found only in the Sinai Peninsula but also has been used as oregano.
General habit: O. syriacum is a subshrub with ascending or erect stems, 0.4 to 13 cm long.
Leaves: Leaves are up to thirty pairs per stem; clearly stalked (petiolate) to almost stalkless; egg-shaped, oval, or heart-shaped; blunt to pinched at the tip; margins toothless or remotely with small rounded teeth; 3 to 35 mm long; 2 to 23 mm wide; green or whitish; with slightly moderately coarse, matted, stiff hairs to covered with dense wool-like covering of matted, tangled hairs of medium length.
Flowers: Spikes are four-sided cylindrical to almost globe-shaped, 3 to 25 mm long, about 4 mm wide. Bracts are four to forty pairs per spike, egg-shaped and attached at the narrow end or oval, blunt or tapering to the apex, toothless or slightly small-toothed, 2 to 5 mm long, about 2 mm wide, green or whitish, outside coated with moderately coarse, matted, stiff hairs. Calyces are one-lipped for nine-tenths or more, egg-shaped and attached at the narrow end or oval, about 2 mm long, outside coated with moderately coarse, matted, stiff hairs. Corollas are two-lipped for about 4 to 7.5 mm long, white, outside more or less coated with short, soft, straight hairs; upper lips divided for about one-fifth into two lobes, lower lips divided for about four-fifths into three sub-equal lobes.
O. vulgare L., Sp. pl. 590. 1753.
Key:
1. Leaves and calyces usually with conspicuous translucent dots; bracts 1.5 to 6 by 1 to 3 mm............. 2
2. Stems slightly coated with short, soft, straight hairs or becoming hairless with age; leaves with translucent dots, more or less coated with a bluish wax, almost smooth, or slightly coated with short, soft, straight hairs; branches and spikes often slender.................................. subsp. gracile
2a. Stems usually with moderate coarse and stiff hairs; leaves densely coated with translucent dots, usually not glaucous, usually hirsute or pilosellous; branches and spikes not slender................ 3
3. Bracts usually shorter than calyces, hairless, or slightly coated with short, straight hairs along margins; obviously coated with translucent dots; inflorescences often very wide................................................................................................ subsp. glandulosum
3a. Bracts usually as long as or somewhat longer than calyces, with moderately coarse and stiff hairs or coated with short, soft, straight hairs, more or less coated with translucent dots; inflorescence often compact..................................................................... subsp. hirtum
1a. Leaves and calyces usually conspicuously coated with translucent dots; bracts 2 to 11 by 1 to 7 mm.... 4
4. Bracts usually (partly) purple; flowers pink.......................................subsp. vulgare
4a. Bracts usually (yellowish) green; flowers usually white....................................... 5
5. Bracts 3.5 to 11 by 2 to 7 mm, smooth or almost smooth, yellowish green; inflorescences often compact................................................................ subsp. virens
5a. Bracts 2 to 8 by 1 to 4 mm, often (densely) coated with short, soft, straight hairs, usually green; inflorescences usually not compact................................ subsp. viridulum
subsp. vulgare
subsp. glandulosum (Desf.) Ietswaart, Tax. Rev. Origanum. 110. 1980. subsp. gracile (Koch) Ietswaart, Tax. Rev. Origanum. 111. 1980 (O. tyttanthum Gontshcarov, O. kopetdagnehse Boriss.).
subsp. hirtum (Link) Ietswaart, Tax. Rev. Origanum. 112. 1980 (O. hirtum Link, O. heracleoticum auct., non L.)
subsp. virens (Hoffmanns. & Link) Ietswaart, Tax. Rev. Origanum 115:1980 (O. virens Hoffmanns. & Link).
subsp. viridulum (Martrin-Donos) Nyman, Consp. Fl. Eur. 592. 1881 [O. vulgare L. subsp. viride (Boiss.) Hayek].
Native country: O. vulgare is native to Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa, but it has become widely naturalized around the world.
General habit: O. vulgare is a woody perennial with stems 10 to 100 cm long, usually ascending and rooting at the bases.
Leaves: Leaves are up to forty-five pairs per stem; stalked to almost stalkless; egg-shaped, oval, or roundish; tapering to the apex to blunt; 6 to 40 mm long; 5 to 30 mm wide; with moderately coarse and stiff hairs or with long, soft, straight hairs to hairless, sometimes covered with a bluish waxy covering; stalkless glands hardly visible to very conspicuous; margins smooth or remotely small-toothed.
Flowers: Spikes are 3 to 35 mm long, 2 to 8 mm wide. Bracts are two to twenty-five pairs per spike; egg-shaped and attached at the narrow end to egg-shaped or oval; more or less tapering to the apex or pinched; 2 to 11 mm long; 1 to 7 mm wide; coated with fine hairs; densely coated with short, soft, straight hairs or hairless; (partly) purple, green, or yellowish green, sometimes glaucous. Flowers almost stalkless. Calyces are 2.5 to 4.5 mm long, outside coated with fine hairs, coated with short, soft, straight hairs, or smooth. Corollas are 3 to 11 mm long, purple, pink, or white; outside coated with short, soft, straight hairs; upper lips divided for about one-fifth into two long lobes; lower lips divided for about one-fifth into three somewhat unequal lobes.
poppy seed
Family: Papaveraceae
Growth form: annual to 39 inches (100 cm) tall
Culinary use: primarily breads, crackers, and pastries
Craft use: pods useful in wreaths and dried flower arrangements
French: pavot somnifère
German: Schlafmohn, Garten-Mohn
Dutch: slaapbol, papaver, maankop
Italian: papavero da oppio
Spanish: adormidera
Portuguese: dormideira, papoila dol ópio
Swedish: opiumvallmo
Russian: mak
Chinese: ying-tzu-shu
Japanese: keshi
Arabic: khas-khasa
This poppy yields opium, yet remains the only source of edible poppy seed and poppy seed oil. The seed oil is considered GRAS. Today most poppy seed is imported from the Netherlands and Australia; the slate-blue Dutch poppy seed is standard. Because of the potential abuse of the opium-yielding sap of this plant, cultivation in the United States has been prohibited by both federal and state governments since the early twentieth century. Opium poppies were once widely cultivated for their beautiful blossoms, and sometimes they persist at old cottage gardens. We do not advocate growing your own poppy seed, and we have omitted directions on cultivation.
The genus Papaver includes about fifty species native to Europe, Asia, South Africa, Australia, and western North America. All are characterized by dried fruit that resembles a small “shaker”; these are used in dried flower arrangements. Papaver was the Latin name for poppies, while somniferum means “sleep-inducing.”
The opium poppy has been cultivated since ancient times. A statue of a poppy goddess was found at a sanctuary at Gazi, west of Heraklion, Crete, dating to about 1400 B.C.E. To harvest the raw material for opium, the immature seed capsules are lanced, usually with a three-pronged knife, early in the morning. The milky latex slowly exudes and congeals to a black mass. In the evening, this blackened latex is gathered and eventually pressed into bricks. The resulting raw opium contains up to twenty-five different alkaloids, especially morphine, which is a powerful analgesic and narcotic and a source of heroin. Tincture of opium, a deep ruby-red liquid called laudanum, was once widely used to alleviate pain but was also consumed as an addictive recreational drug by poets, painters, and novelists of eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Europe.
We used to be told that the black (or white) seeds (maw) do not contain measurable amounts of alkaloids unless they had been contaminated by the latex, but tests have shown commercial poppy seed to contain 0 to 1.7 ppm surface and free morphine and 0 to 0.5 ppm surface and free codeine as well as 0.6 to 2.3 ppm bound morphine and 0 to 0.5 ppm bound codeine. Perhaps those hot poppy seed milkshakes that are sometimes given to German and Eastern European children to soothe them into slumber have a real effect!
Papaver somniferum
The dried poppy capsules also have trace quantities of bound morphine and codeine, and commercial seed will germinate to produce poppies that yield opium.
Poppy seeds are widely used in baking for their distinctive nutty flavor and also as birdseed. Toasting or baking the seeds will enhance the nutty flavor. The whole seeds are commonly used on dinner rolls, while the crushed seeds, mixed with sugar and other ingredients, are used in pastries. The pressed oil is used in artists’ paints, salad oil, soap, and so on.
Opium poppy is a robust annual to about 3 feet (0.9 m) tall and coated with a blue wax. The flowers vary from white to mauve and from single with a distinct cross at the base (‘Danebrog’, or Danish flag poppies) to doubles with deeply slashed petals (“peony-flowered”).
Important chemistry: The latex is rich in alkaloids, principally morphine (1 to 21 percent), and also thebaine, codeine, narceine, narcotine, and papaverine. The seeds contain about 22 percent protein and 48 percent oil, the latter rich in palmitic (31 percent), oleic (27 percent), linoleic (18 percent), and lauric (13 percent) acids.
Papaver somniferum includes three subspecies, but subsp. somniferum is most widely cultivated.
P. somniferum L., Sp. pl. 508. 1753.
Native country: Opium poppy was probably derived from P. setigerum DC. of southwest Asia.
General habit: Opium poppy is a smooth annual coated with blue wax and growing 30 to 100 cm tall.
Leaves: Leaves are 7 to 12 cm long, ovate- oblong, with lobes arranged as in a feather.
Flowers: Flowers are white to mauve with almost round petals 35 to 45 mm across.
Fruits/seeds: The dried shaker-type capsule is 5 to 9 by 3 to 6 cm, yielding white to black seeds.
scented geranium
Family: Geraniaceae
Growth form: succulent perennial shrubs from 1 foot (30 cm) to 6 feet (1.8 m) tall
Hardiness: routinely hardy to Zone 9, although well-mulched plants snugged next to the house may be root-hardy to Zone 6
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet; many can with stand drought
Soil: well-drained garden loam
Propagation: mostly cuttings during active growth in summer
Culinary use: limited (most not GRAS except for P. ‘Graveolens’)
Craft use: potpourri, wreaths, perfume
Landscape use: excellent for summer bedding as edgings or in borders; also excellent in pots or window boxes
Name a delectable fragrance—rose, lemon, orange, lime, strawberry, peppermint, camphor, nutmeg, spice, apple, apricot, coconut, filbert, ginger—and there’s a scented geranium to match. Pelargonium is derived from the Greek pelargos, or stork, referring to the ripe seed head, which supposedly resembles the head and beak of the stork, hence a common name of storksbill. Most of the 280 species are native to South Africa. Many additional, complex hybrids have been created since their introduction into Europe in the early seventeenth century.
While commonly called “scented geraniums,” they are often confused by the novice gardener with the hardy Geranium species, or cranesbills, and the hardy Erodium species, or heronsbills. In 1753, Linnaeus published thirty-nine species of the genus Geranium in his Species Plantarum, including storksbills, cranes-bills, and heronsbills in the same genus. From 1787 to 1788 L’Héritier published forty-four plates under the title Geraniologia. L’Héritier’s accompanying text was not published until 1802, but the unfinished manuscript was widely circulated prior to publication. From this manuscript, Aiton published the new names of Pelargonium and Erodium, separating these new genera from Geranium, in his Hortus Kewensis of 1789.
Both Pelargonium and Geranium have five petals and ten stamens, but in Pelargonium the two upper petals are usually larger and only five to seven anthers are fertile. The remaining are present as filaments. All three genera can also be distinguished by their fruits.
All scented geraniums do best in full sun in circumneutral garden loam with relatively cool, dry summers. The addition of 53 to 71 pounds per acre (60 to 80 kg/ha) of nitrogen is recommended for commercial production of rose geranium oil. Geranium for oil is harvested about four months after planting.
Sudden wilts and root rots from Pythium, Verticillium, Lasiodiplodia, and Fusarium, soil-borne fungi, are often encountered. Overhead watering, excessive soil moisture, and crowding will increase the incidence from wilt. Leaf spot (Cercospora spp.), gray mold or botrytis blight (Botrytis cinerea), black root rot (Thielaviopsis basicola and Macrophomina phaseolina), scab (Sphaceloma pelargonii), bacterial fasciation (Corynebacterium fascians), vascular wilts (Xanthomonas pelargonii), rust (Puccinia spp.), and several virus diseases have also been reported. Root-knot nematodes, Meloidogyne hapla and M. incognita, have been found to infect the roots of commercial stands of the rose-scented geranium. Spider mites, whiteflies, caterpillars, and aphids can be pests in the greenhouse.
Most scented geraniums flower best in late winter to early spring after a cool, but not freezing, winter. Because most species are not hardy below freezing, they are best raised as potted plants, and cuttings may be easily rooted in late summer to carry over through the winter.
Propagation by cuttings is important to preserve the unique characteristics of individual cultivars, which are often complex hybrids. While many geranium cultivars root easily and quickly in water, this is not normally recommended (see chapter 7, on propagation, for details). More traditional rooting methods use vigorous basal side-shoots ripped off in a downward tug that produces a “heel” cutting for best results. Some gardeners claim that cuttings root most easily after “hardening” (drying) a few hours, but this is not normally required for the scenteds. Some, such as strawberry-scented geranium and ‘Mabel Grey’, sometimes refuse to root at all unless basal cuttings or extra watering is used.
Scented geraniums have a reputation as being more difficult to root than other geraniums; one reason for this may be because of a number of viruses that sap the plants’ strength but do little else. The zonal geranium bedding-plant industry combats this by using seeds and by creating virus-free clones with special technology. These methods are expensive and are not used for scenteds because of technical difficulties and low sales when compared with bedding geraniums.
Name a delectable fragrance—rose, lemon, orange,
lime, strawberry, peppermint, camphor, nutmeg,
spice, apple, apricot, coconut, filbert, ginger—
and there’s a scented geranium to match.
An area of further research on rooting of scented geraniums is the use of Florel (ethephon). In a study, it increased rooting under supplemental lights, increased total roots per cutting, and reduced the stem length and stem diameter. Studies on basal heating are also needed.
Most of the offerings in the nursery trade, even of supposedly “pure” species, are actually complex hybrids. The herb industry, in general, has been plagued for decades with the practice of renaming plants; sometimes this is done intentionally to increase sales, but usually it is without malice by the uninformed. Scented geraniums are a case in point, and it sometimes appears that total name-anarchy exists. ‘Beauty Oak’ has been renamed ‘Beauty’, ‘Cody’ has been renamed ‘Apple Cider’, ‘Logee’ has become ‘Old Spice’, and ‘Logee’s Snowflake’ is now sold as ‘Snowflake’. The new names may have more appeal and induce more sales, but ‘Beauty’, for example, already designates another geranium, and the trade now has two clones called ‘Citronella’: one in cultivation in the United States and France and another in England. Which is correct?
In the following discussion we have omitted the mildly scented selections grown primarily for their flowers or foliage, such as P. vitifolium (L.) L’Hér. ex Aiton, ‘Brilliant’, ‘Capri’, ‘Clorinda’ (‘Eucalyptus’), ‘Mexican Sage’, ‘Mrs. Kingsley’, ‘Mrs. Taylor’, ‘Old Scarlet Unique’, ‘Pink Champagne’, ‘Red-Flowered Rose’, ‘Roger’s Delight’, ‘Rollison’s Unique’, ‘Solfrino’, ‘Spanish Lavender’, and ‘Sweet Miriam’. Some scented-leaved geraniums, such as the so-called labdanum-scented P. cucullatum (L.) L’Hér. ex Aiton and the apocryphal rue-scented P. ×rutaceum Sweet, are not in general cultivation and have also been omitted. New cultivars are introduced every year, and the correct taxonomic placement of these cultivars is often in doubt. We thus find too little published information on ‘Cook’s Lemon Rose’, ‘Copthorne’, ‘Dean’s Delight’, ‘Karooense’, ‘Lillian Pottinger’, ‘Ruby Edged Oak’, ‘Sancho Panza’, ‘Sharp-Toothed Oak’, ‘Solferino’, ‘Spring Park’, ‘Sweet Miriam’, ‘Variegated Oak’, or ‘Variegated Shrubland Rose’.
The scented geraniums have been grouped here by species. Following the principal species and their derivatives are the complex hybrids in which no one species predominates. In all cases, because of their rampant hybridization in years past and close similarities, only markedly distinguishing morphological characteristics are listed; detailed botanical descriptions are listed separately for the intellectually curious. These herbs were selected primarily for their odors, and thus are discussed more fully in the general introduction. Ultimately, identification of unknown scented geraniums must be done one-on-one with authentically labeled living material; not even good photographs will suffice in difficult cases.
A strong caveat must also be inserted here. Hybrid origins are only hypothetical unless artificial resynthesis has been done and compared with the type specimens (in addition to the descriptions and illustrations), and this has only been done (so far, in part) with the ‘Graveolens’ series. Much work remains to be done! Take any statements of hybrid origin in Pelargonium with a liberal dose of skepticism. They are only included here, with legitimately published names as currently accepted by taxonomists, to provide routes for future research. We have also followed the policy of the English experts in Pelargonium to create cultivar groups, e.g., ‘Graveolens’ (which see), for many of the so-called species complexes. Until nothospecies (hybrid species) are typified and the origins elucidated by resynthesis, this is probably the best temporary solution. This is obviously not the last word, and names will undoubtedly change in the future. Consider yourself warned!
southernwood geranium
The fragrant, gray, slender leaves of this species resemble the herb southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum). The floating, lacy, gray leaves are a great accent with other geraniums and in window boxes.
Pelargonium abrotanifolium
rose-scented geranium
The specific name means “head-shaped,” referring to the shape of the flower clusters. The flowers are similar to P. vitifolium, the grape-leaved geranium. This rose-scented geranium is one of the ancestors, along with P. radens and P. graveolens, of ‘Graveolens’, the leading rose-scented geranium of commercial cultivation. The hydrophilic extract of P. capitatum has been shown to be antimicrobial.
Important chemistry: The essential oil is very variable with trace to 48 percent alpha-pinene, 0 to 37 percent citronellyl formate, trace to 29 percent citronellol, 0 to 26 percent 10-epi-gamma-eudesmol, 0 to 22 percent delta-cadinene, 0 to 18 percent menthone, 0 to 18 percent germacrene D, 0 to 18 percent beta-caryophyllene, 0 to 18 percent guaia-6,9-diene, 0 to 15 percent geraniol, 0 to 4 percent linalool, 0 to 12 percent terpinen-4-ol, and 0 to 11 percent limonene.
Some cultivars derived from P. capitatum follow. Many of these may, in fact, be more correctly relegated to P. ‘Graveolens’ because of their lack of pollen fertility, but chromosome counts must still be done to confirm this classification.
Cultivar: ‘Attar of Roses’
Synonyms: ‘Otto of Roses’; more than one clone is sold in North America
Origin: England, 1817; introduced at the New York Botanical Garden in 1923
Description: differs from P. capitatum in that the stems are somewhat shorter, leaves are more densely lobed and harsher on the upper surfaces, small flowers on short stems are rose-pink, and the upper ones more conspicuously veined
Essential oil: 7 to 43 percent geraniol, 18 to 43 percent citronellol, and 3 to 14 percent isomenthone (minty rose)
Synonyms: ‘Ice Crystal Rose’, a seedling introduced by Gary Scheidt of California in the 1970s, is extremely similar but not identical
Origin: bred by Edward Alfred Bernard (“Ted”) Both, Flinders, South Australia, 1950s
Description: deeply divided leaves with irregular splashes of cream and white; flowers are small and lavender; fragrance is lemon-rose
Cultivar: ‘Major’
Synonyms: ‘Large-leaved Rose’, P. quinquevulnerum Willd.
Origin: Veitch, England, 1879, probably of hybrid origin
Description: same habit as P. capitatum but grows taller; leaves are larger, margins not as sharply toothed; flowers are similar in form but rose-pink in color
This was first described in 1983. According to the discoverer, Dr. J. J. A. van der Walt, this species may be a naturally occurring, ancient hybrid involving P. scabrum (L.) L’Hér. ex Aiton. It flowers most abundantly in spring. ‘Mabel Grey’ is a selected, cultivated clone of the species with leaves slightly less deeply lobed (much as ‘Mitcham’ is a selected, cultivated clone of peppermint).
Important chemistry: The oil of the wild species has 36 to 48 percent geranial and 27 to 37 percent neral, providing a lemony odor. ‘Mabel Grey’ is bitter lemon-scented with an essential oil containing trace to 58 percent neral, 30 to 43 percent geranial, 0 to 27 percent geranyl formate, 0 to 31 percent citronellol, 0 to 43 percent geraniol, and 0 to 13 percent beta-pinene.
Pelargonium citronellum ‘Mabel Grey’
lemon-scented geranium
The specific name refers to the crisped leaves, scented of lemons.
Important chemistry: 8 to 30 percent geranial, 3 to 57 percent neral, 0 to 14 percent nerol, trace to 17 percent [E]-nerolidol, 0 to 14 percent germacrene D, 0 to 14 percent selina-4,11-diene, trace to 11 percent beta-bourbonene, and 0 to 10 percent guaia-6,9-diene.
Some cultivars derived from P. crispum follow.
Synonyms: ‘Peach’, ‘Peach Cream’, ‘Variegatum’, often incorrectly listed as P. grossularioides
Description: similar to the species but with leaves mottled green and white, growth bushy, compact
Cultivar: ‘Prince Rupert’
Description: similar to the species but with larger leaves and shorter leaf stalks; flowers are the same color, the upper petals carmine-veined
Essential oil: 16 to 20 percent [Z]-nerolidol, 12 to 30 percent geranial, and 16 to 19 percent neral
Cultivar: ‘Variegated Prince Rupert’
Synonyms: ‘French Lace’
Origin: Arndt, New Jersey, 1948
Description: habit of P. cripsum but bushier and of more rapid growth, pyramidal in shape, leaves green with white margins
Essential oil: 28 to 49 percent geranial and 22 to 33 percent citronellol
Pelargonium crispum
pine-scented geranium
This pungent-scented geranium has flat, sticky, leaves and rounded teeth on the leaf margins. Most of the material cultivated in the United States as this species is actually an unnamed cultivar, perhaps derived from P. radens × P. denticulatum. Plants tend to become lanky with age and should be pruned back occasionally to maintain an attractive shape.
Important chemistry: 40 percent isomenthone, 18 percent citronellal, and 18 percent citronellol (pungent-scented).
A cultivar derived from P. denticulatum follows.
Cultivar: ‘Filicifolium’
Synonyms: ‘Fernaefolium’, P. filicifolium Hort.
Origin: introduced by Henderson in England in 1879
Description: very similar to the wild species in South Africa with finely cut leaves, lacy in appearance
Essential oil: 24 to 32 percent n-hexyl butyrate and 14 to 17 percent trans-2-hexenyl butyrate in the essential oil
This species is called “upright coconut” in the trade, not to be confused with P. tabulare (Burm.f.) L’Hér. or P. patulum Jacq.
nutmeg-scented geranium
This aromatic (“nutmeg-scented”) geranium may be a hybrid, P. exstipulatum (Cav.) L’Hér. ex Aiton × P. odoratissimum; others have questioned whether this is a non-hybrid species, now extinct in South Africa.
Important chemistry: 10 to 31 percent methyl eugenol, 0 to 20 percent alpha-pinene, and 8 to 14 percent fenchone (spicy)
This species (notho- or otherwise) includes the following cultivars. Also listed are ‘Aroma’, ‘Fringed Apple’, ‘Fruity’, and ‘Lillian Pottinger’. ‘Fruit Salad’ (Arndt, New Jersey) has a fruity scent.
Cultivar: ‘Apple Cider’
Synonyms: ‘Cody’
Origin: Dorcas Brigham, Village Hill Nursery, Williamsburg, Massachusetts, pre-1955
Description: more compact than ‘Fragrans’, the leaves lighter green, larger, usually kidney-shaped
Cultivar: ‘Old Spice’
Synonyms: ‘Logee’
Origin: Ernest Logee, Danielson, Connecticut, c. 1948
Description: erratically lobed leaves with handsomely ruffled margins, flowers like ‘Fragrans’
Comments: may be a backcross to P. odoratissimum
Cultivar: ‘Variegated Nutmeg’
Synonyms: ‘Snowy Nutmeg’ and ‘Golden Nutmeg’ were derived from this cultivar and frequently revert from one to the other
Origin: Dr. John Seeley, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1957
Description: irregularly streaked with white
Pelargonium ‘Fragrans’
pheasant’s foot geranium
Important chemistry: The odor of the glutinous, clammy leaves is pungent from up to 25 percent guaia-6,9-diene, 16 to 24 percent p-cymene, and trace to 12 percent citronellol in the essential oil of the cultivated species. Hexyl butyrate and trans-2-hexenyl butyrate are the principal constituents of the oil of wild- collected material.
A cultivar derived from this extremely variable species follows.
Cultivar: ‘Viscossimum’
Origin: originally thought to be a natural species raised from seed obtained from Cape Province, South Africa, but more probably a variant of P. glutinosum
Description: habit of P. glutinosum but the leaves are more deeply lobed, the lobes narrower and more strongly toothed; flowers very small, short-spurred, five to eight in a flat flower cluster, petals nearly equal, lilac or white streaked with red on the upper two
The true P. graveolens is similar to P. radens, but it is not now in general cultivation. The plant usually sold as P. graveolens in North America is actually ‘Graveolens’.
Important chemistry: This is peppermint-or rose-scented geranium with 7 to 83 percent isomenthone, 19 to 42 percent geraniol, 0 to 18 percent citronellol, 1 to 13 percent linalool, and around 11 percent citronellyl formate in the essential oil.
The ‘Graveolens’ hybrids (P. capitatum ×P. radens or P. graveolens) include both minty and rose-scented forms. They were once designated by taxonomists as P. ×asperum Willd., but close examination of Willdenow’s type specimen in Berlin reveals that the latter is a hybrid involving P. quercifolium or maybe P. panduriforme Eckl. & Zeyh. As further proof of the hybrid origin of this series of geraniums, we have yet to find any fertile pollen, and all plants that we have counted so far have a chromosome number of 2n = 77, supporting J. Payet and other researchers around the world who have not only examined the chromosome numbers of these hybrids and their parents but also created synthetic hybrids.
Pelargonium‘Graveolens’
Pelargonium ‘Graveolens’ (syns. ‘Old Fashioned Rose’, ‘Rosé’, not P. graveolens) is the hybrid usually sold in North America as P. graveolens, which it closely resembles in morphology. It has narrower leaves, with more deeply cut lobes, than P. graveolens and the harsh hairs of P. radens. Because seed propagation has occurred here, introducing slight variation, we (again, following the English experts) designate ‘Graveolens’ as a cultivar group, or what used to be called a grex (a term taxonomists used to describe a collection of clones from the same cross) rather than one clone.
While the essential oil constituents of ‘Graveolens’ are not influenced by fertility, they are greatly influenced by water stress and altitude. France and China supply most of the rose geranium oil to the United States. ‘Graveolens’ is also raised commercially on the Island of Réunion, having been introduced in 1800, and the commercial product is called “Bourbon Geranium.”
Around 1900 ‘Graveolens’ was introduced from France to Algeria, Egypt, and Morocco, where it became known as “African geranium” in the commercial trade. A characteristic feature of the Bourbon Geranium oil is the presence of 4 to 7 percent guaia-6,9-diene, which is present in African geranium in only trace quantities. African geranium is characterized by the presence of 4 to 5 percent 10-epi-gamma-eudesmol, which is not present in Bourbon-type oils. Rose geranium oil is greenish at first, becoming yellow with age. The odor is green, leafy-rosy, with a sweet-rosy dryout. Rose geranium oil is widely used in perfumery, blends well with almost everything, and displays antimicrobial activity. The essential oil is considered GRAS at 1.6 to 200 ppm.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of P. ‘Graveolens’ is 8 to 51 percent citronellol, 1 to 28 percent citronellyl formate, trace to 23 percent geraniol, trace to 18 percent beta-caryophyllene, 0 to 16 percent linalool, and 0 to 10 percent geranyl butyrate (rose)
Selections of this hybrid complex sometimes listed in catalogs and books include ‘Candy Dancer’, ‘Crowfoot Rose’, ‘Fragrantissimum’, ‘Giganteum’ (‘Giant Rose’), ‘Granelous’, ‘Grey Lady Plymouth’, ‘Marginata’, ‘Peacock’, ‘Roller’s Sigma Variegated Rose’, ‘Silver Leaf Rose’, and ‘Variegatum’. Other selections that seem to fall with in this hybrid complex follow.
Cultivar: ‘Bontrosai’
Origin: 2005 (U.S. PP15,918) by Boekestijn-Vermeer, Klazina, Naaldwiji, Netherlands, reputedly derived from ‘Graveolens’ by UV-radiation and hormones
Description: contorted, curled leaves
Cultivar: ‘Camphor Rose’
Synonyms: ‘Camphorum’
Origin: c. 1900
Description: similar to ‘Graveolens’ in growth habit but coarser throughout, leaves larger and bristly haired, flower cluster similar but flowers rose-pink
Essential oil: 22 percent menthone, 15 percent isomenthone, and 10 percent geranyl butyrate (minty rose)
Cultivar: ‘Charity’
Origin: reputedly a sport of ‘Graveolens’ discovered by Dr. Durrell Nelson, Nauvoo Restoration, Illinois; distributed by Glasshouse Works, Ohio
Description: golden green leaves with deeper green veining and centers
Origin: Chicago Botanic Garden, 1970s; distributed by Mary Peddie, Rutland, Kentucky
Description: very large leaves, up to 6 inches (15 cm) across
Cultivar: ‘Cinnamon Rose’
Synonyms: ‘Cinnamon’; this is often listed as P. gratum Willd. (a species of unknown origin) and more than one ‘Cinnamon’ clone exists, but the most common clone with this name is rose-scented with a hint of cinnamon
Origin: Fred Bode, California, 1950s
Cultivar: ‘Citrosa’
Origin: unknown, probably Florida, but not the Netherlands
Description: similar in morphology to ‘Lady Plymouth’ and ‘Little Gem’
Essential oil: 39 percent geraniol and 11 percent citronellol
Comments: ‘Citrosa’ has been touted as a somatic fusion of Pelargonium and Cymbopogon nardus (citronella grass) with the ability to repel mosquitoes. The citronellal content, the unique component of citronella grass (about 21 percent in Java citronella oil and 14 percent in Ceylon citronella oil) is only 0.09 percent. In addition, a study found no significant repellency from the whole plant, but the crushed plant had 30 to 40 percent repellency compared with Deep Woods Off; lemon thyme (Thymus ×citriodorus) had 60 percent repellency. In short, we have been unable to substantiate any of the claims of origin or repellency made for ‘Citrosa’.
Cultivar: ‘Dr. Livingston’
Synonyms: ‘Dr. Livingstone’, ‘Skeleton Rose’
Origin: England, pre-1876
Description: morphologically similar to the P. radens parent but leaves are more deeply lobed, grow this taller, and blooms less freely produced
Essential oil: 33 to 39 percent citronellol and 18 to 24 percent isomenthone (rosy mint)
Cultivar: ‘Lady Plymouth’
Origin: England, c. 1852
Description: lower growing and less vigorous than ‘Graveolens’, leaves green, blotched cream white, flowers similar
Essential oil: 72 to 82 percent isomenthone (peppermint)
Cultivar: ‘Little Gem’
Origin: England, 1860s, possibly not the same plant as originally described
Description: leaves more lobed and toothed, slightly woolly, flower clusters on short stalks and held close to the foliage, flowers rose-pink with two purple lines on the upper petals, somewhat rose/pungent-scented
Comments: sometimes cited as a derivative of P. quercifolium but origin unknown
Cultivar: ‘Ocean Wave’
Origin: Logee’s, Danielson, Connecticut
Description: wavy, almost curly leaves
Cultivar: ‘Peppermint Rose’
Description: vigorous with gray-green, deeply cut leaves
Essential oil: 63 to 65 percent isomenthone and 7 to 11 percent decanoic acid (peppermint)
Cultivar: ‘Rober’s Lemon Rose’
Synonyms: ‘Canadian Silver Seedling’, ‘Western Rose Seedling’
Origin: unknown, apocryphally a hybrid (P. ‘Graveolens’ × P. tomentosum) from Ernest Rober in California in the 1940s, but the morphology and essential oil pattern suggests a chimera of P. ‘Graveolens’
Description: shrubby habit of growth, stems erect to 2 feet (60 cm) or more, branching, not densely leafy, leaves intermediate in size, almost like those of tomatoes, to 2 inches (5 cm) long and as broad at the base, triangular in outline, lobed or almost-lobed to the midrib, the segments irregularly lobed and toothed, feltlike white-hairy, flower clusters dense, flowers pink, the upper petals crimson-veined
Essential oil: 1 to 26 percent beta-caryophyllene, 19 to 57 percent citronellol, 3 to 17 percent citronellyl formate, 2 to 13 percent linalool, and 4 to 10 percent geraniol (lemon-rose)
Cultivar: ‘Velvet Rose’
Origin: ‘Velvet Rose’ was isolated from a ‘Rober’s Lemon Rose’ tissue culture line by Robert Skirvin, Purdue University, in 1975
Description: relatively short internodes, leaves thick, gray-green, densely hairy
coconut-scented geranium
The coconut-scented geranium shows great variability in number of flowers per cluster and leaf shape. The specific name means “gooseberry-like,” and another common name is gooseberry geranium (not to be confused with P. ‘Goose-berry Leaf’, which sometimes is sold as P. grossularioides). Abundant seeds are produced, and they may even overwinter and germinate in the spring.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of P. grossularioides is rich in 16 percent geraniol, 13 percent isomenthone, 12 percent citronellol, and 11 percent methyl eugenol, providing a complex rose-mint-lemon-clove fragrance.
This apple-rose-scented geranium is similar to P. ‘Fragrans’.
Important chemistry: 32 to 80 percent methyl eugenol and 5 to 19 percent isomenthone.
oak-leaved geranium
The plants currently cultivated under this name are mainly hybrids, probably of P. pseudoglutinosum R. Kunth and P. panduriforme Eckl. & Zeyn. The true species has pointed, not rounded leaf lobes.
Important chemistry: The odor of the typical species is pungent from 33 percent p-cymene and 12 percent alpha-phellandrene in the essential oil. A cultivated form has been reported with 31 percent isomenthone and 19 percent beta-pinene.
All cultivars derived from this species have pungent-scented oily leaves, including ‘Harlequin Oak’, a variegated oak geranium, and the following.
Cultivar: ‘Fair Ellen’
Synonyms: probably originally known as ‘Fair Helen’
Origin: probably of hybrid origin, originated in England in the 1840s
Description: habit of P. quercifolium, the stems erect, more branched and not quite as tall, leaves similar to the species, flowers somewhat larger than the species, bright magenta-pink with larger purple spot on the upper petals
Cultivar: ‘Giant Oak’
Synonyms: giant oak-leaved geranium,‘ Giganteum’
Origin: originated in England c. 1850
Description: leaves twice the size as those of the species, with five broader lobes, flowers slightly smaller with a smaller dark spot on the upper petals
Essential oil: 20 to 34 percent alpha-phellandrene and 11 to 19 percent p-cymene
Cultivar: ‘Pinnatifidum’
Synonyms: sharp-toothed oak-leaved geranium
Description: smooth, stocky, deeply lobed leaves with sharply pointed teeth, flat flower clusters hold four blossoms
Essential oil: 17 to 20 percent p-cymene, 12 to 24 percent alpha-phellandrene, and 14 to 16 percent trans-2-hexenyl butyrate
Cultivar: ‘Staghorn Oak’
Synonyms: ‘True Oak’, ‘Staghorn’
Origin: introduced in England c. 1860
Description: similar to the species in habit of growth, leaves similar size and outline but differ in that each segment has an additional round lobe, suggesting incipient antlers about to emerge from a stag’s horn, some leaves with the terminal lobe elongated with seven to nine smaller lobes
Essential oil: 14 to 23 percent p-cymene, 17 to 19 percent trans-2-hexenyl butyrate, 12 to 16 percent alpha-phellandrene, and 8 to 11 percent n-hexyl butyrate
This rose-scented geranium is often called the crow’s foot geranium (not to be confused with its cultivar ‘Crow’s Foot’); the specific epithet is adapted from radians, or radiating from a common center.
Important chemistry: The fragrance of the wild species is characteristically minty from 32 to 85 percent isomenthone, trace to 54 percent citronellol, and trace to 12 percent beta-caryophyllene.
peppermint-scented geranium
The peppermint-scented geranium is delightful in hanging baskets with large, fuzzy leaves on irregular but compact growth.
Important chemistry: It owes its scent to 46 to 87 percent isomenthone and 2 to 50 percent menthone in the essential oil.
Pelargonium tomentosum
Cultivar: ‘Atomic Snowflake’
Also called ‘Atomic Rose’, this lemon-rose-scented geranium is a variation of ‘Snowflake’ originated by Merry Gardens, Camden, Maine. It has an irregular pale yellow band on the edge of the gray-green leaves with a slightly distorted leaf edge. The lavender flowers are similar to ‘Snowflake’, and reversions to ‘Round Leaf Rose’ have been reported.
Cultivar: ‘Beauty’
‘Beauty’ (‘Beauty Oak’) originated at Logee’s, Danielson, Connecticut, supposedly as a chance mint-pungent-scented hybrid, P. quercifolium ‘Giant Oak’ × P. tomentosum. ‘Beauty’ has trailing, branching stems, leaves long-stalked, rounded heart-shaped in outline, three-to five-lobed, the margins of lobes and smaller lobes sharply toothed, center of light green leaves marked with brown-purple, flowers similar to P. tomentosum.
Cultivar: ‘Bitter Lemon’
Often marketed simply as ‘Angel’ or ‘Angeline’, this has a sharp harsh bitter lemon fragrance. ‘Bitter Lemon’ bears showy pink flowers with leaves similar to ‘Mabel Grey’ but with more teeth. This may be the same plant marketed as ‘Citronella’ in England; the essential oil of the English cultivar contains up to 31 percent neral, 28 percent geranial, and 23 percent citronellol. Like ‘Mabel Grey’, which it superficially resembles, this is probably a derivative of P. citronellum.
Cultivar: ‘Blandfordianum’
The rosy-scented plant currently cultivated under this name is of unknown origin but bears some resemblance to the ‘Graveolens’ series. This is probably not the same as P. ×blandfordianum (Andr.) Sweet. The leaves are five- to seven-lobed and palmate, the lobes with rounded teeth. Flowers are in flat clusters, the petals white or very pale pink, the upper 1 cm long and broader with two red spots and purplish veins below.
Cultivar: ‘Chocolate Peppermint’
‘Chocolate Peppermint’, sometimes called ‘Chocolate Mint’, is of similar origin to ‘Beauty’ and introduced by Viva Ireland, Santa Barbara, California. This resembles ‘Beauty’ except that the leaves are less deeply lobed. The odor is pungent minty with no trace of chocolate (merely a chocolate splotch on the leaf). The essential oil contains trace to 39 percent menthone, trace to 22 percent isomenthone, and 3 to 18 percent alpha-phellandrene.
Cultivar: ‘Citronella’
At least two different cultivars are raised under this name. The English ‘Citronella’ is lemon-rose-scented and probably the same cultivar as ‘Angeline’/’Angel’ in North America, while the French ‘Citronelle’, which is also cultivated in North America, is lemon-mint-scented. Leaves of the French/American ‘Citronella’ are heart-shaped in outline with three to five rounded lobes. The essential oil of the French/North American cultivar contains 32 to 40 percent citronellol, trace to 20 percent isomenthone, and 17 to 48 percent citronellic acid. The origin of the French/North American cultivar is unknown but has been postulated to be a hybrid of P. vitifolium with P. radens or P. ‘Graveolens’.
Cultivar: ‘Clare’s Cascade’
‘Clare’s Cascade’ is peppermint-scented. The light green leaves are similar to those of P. odoratissimum.
Cultivar: ‘Concolor Lace’
‘Concolor Lace’, alias ‘Filbert’ or ‘Shotesham Pet’, originated in England in about 1820. It is probably not the same as P. ×concolor Sweet. This is a mildly filbert-scented hybrid. The leaves are light green, softly hairy, thin, egg-shaped in outline, lobed to the central axis in the manner of a feather, with five to seven more or less wedge-shaped lobes, margins of segments incised and toothed, flat flower clusters with five to seven scarlet flowers.
Cultivar: ‘Endsleigh’
Pungent-scented ‘Endsleigh’ has been considered a hybrid, P. quercifolium × P. capitatum. It originated in the United Kingdom by Cross, 1951. It has strong, prostrate growth with fivelobed, rounded leaves with a dark blotch in the center. Flowers are pale rosy mauve with darker veins on the upper petals.
Cultivar: ‘Frensham’
‘Frensham’, also sold under the misspelled names of ‘Francais’ or ‘Frenchaise’ was introduced by Morden in the United Kingdom in 1970 as a hybrid (‘Orange’ × ‘Mabel Grey’). It is a short, bushy plant with moss-green palmate leaves. The mauve flowers are similar to ‘Orange’. The essential oil is characterized by 51 percent citral (geranial plus neral), 26 percent citronellol, and 12 percent geranyl formate.
Cultivar: ‘Godfrey’s Pride’
This geranium has been postulated to be a hybrid, P. quercifolium × P. capitatum. It is a large, rangy shrub with green leaves that are yellow-streaked in some, three-lobed, the margins sharply toothed. Flowers are pink with darker veining on the upper petals. The essential oil has 25 percent beta-pinene, 15 percent geranyl butyrate, and 15 percent menthone, providing a piney-rosy-minty fragrance.
Cultivar: ‘Joy Lucille’
This is a peppermint-scented hybrid of unknown origin (but listed as P. ‘Graveolens’ × P. tomentosum) from Logee’s, Danielson, Connecticut, introduced in the 1940s; but more likely the parentage is a rose-scented geranium crossed with P. vitifolium (L.) L’Hér. It has a loose and rangy habit of growth. Leaves are large, green, feltlike, white-hairy, three-lobed, all lobes scalloped and toothed. Flowers are small, pink with carmine markings in the upper petals. The essential oil is dominated by 57 percent isomenthone and 29 percent menthone. ‘Variegated Joy Lucille’, marbled in ivory, is also listed.
Cultivar: ‘Lady Mary’
The plants in commerce do not match the original description of P. ×limoneum and are probably not this species. The odor is faint citrusy with rose overtones.
Cultivar: ‘Lady Scarborough’
This strawberry-lemon-scented geranium is often sold in the trade as ‘Countess of Scarborough’. It is of unknown origin and probably not the same as P. ×scarboroviae Sweet but very similar in morphology to the rose-camphor-scented P. englerianum Kunth. Stems are lax, densely branched. Leaves are deeply divided, glossy green, rigid, three-lobed with the central lobe usually three-parted, coarsely toothed, not crisped. The flowers have spotted upper petals, veined with red or pink-violet, the lower petals narrower, pale lilac or stained red.
Cultivar: ‘Lemon Balm’
This is a rose-scented hybrid, possibly involving P. vitifolium and sometimes listed as P. ‘Graveo-lens’ × P. quercifolium; it is probably not the same as P. ×melissimum Sweet. In the United States, two different plants are sold under this invalid (because it is the simple common name of a species in another genus, Melissa officinalis) cultivar name, one of which is more deeply dissected and likely a derivative of P. ‘Graveolens’; the latter is characterized by 33 to 36 percent geraniol, 30 to 35 percent decanoic acid, and 11 to 14 percent isomenthone.
Cultivar: ‘Lemon Meringue’
This lemon-scented geranium is perhaps a seedling of ‘Mabel Grey’, introduced by Harriet Foster of The Tunnel Geranium Nursery, Santa Barbara, California.
Cultivar: ‘Lime’
Again, a cultivar name representing the simple common name of a species in another genus is not valid; this geranium needs a new name. The plant now in commerce is probably not the same as P. ×nervosum Sweet. ‘Lime’ has round to oblong leaves with shallow serrate edges. Flowers vary from pale lilac to a deeper shade with purple feathering on the upper petals. ‘Lime’ geranium owes its fragrance to 13 to 14 percent delta-cadinene and 10 to 11 percent beta-caryophyllene.
Cultivar: ‘Orange’
Another invalid name (it is the common name of a species in another genus). The lemon- scented P. ×citrosum Voigt ex Breiter included a clone named ‘Prince of Orange’, which originated in England pre-1850 and was named for the orange scent of the leaves. However, what is sold in the United States is not this clone at all but one which might be called simply ‘Orange’. It is of unknown parentage. Leaves are broad, the blades nearly flat.
Pelargonium‘Orange’
Cultivar: ‘Paton’s Unique’
The so-called apricot-scented geranium, sometimes sold as ‘M. Ninon’, was introduced from South Africa into England in 1775. Some have postulated it is a hybrid involving P. scabrum (L.) L’Hér. ex Aiton, but that is doubtful. It is a bushy, much-branched, harsh-hairy, glandular plant with strong, erect stems to 4 feet (1.2 m) or more. Leaves are sticky, large, triangular in outline, deeply three-lobed with lobes again divided, margins of all lobes coarsely toothed and curled. Flower clusters in the leaf axils are many-flowered, the flowers small, white to deep pink, or even red, with a carmine spot and purple veins on the upper petals.
Cultivar: ‘Pheasant’s Foot’
A name applied to several different pungent-scented plants, perhaps all derivatives of P. glutinosum. At least some of the plants sold as ‘Pheasant’s Foot’ are hybrids, P. denticulatum × P. glutinosum, sometimes called P. ×jatrophaefolium DC. The foliage is deeply cut and toothed, sticky. Flowers are small and pink.
Cultivar: ‘Pretty Polly’
This mildly pungent-scented (so-called almond-scented) geranium originated in England about 1850. Some have postulated ‘Pretty Polly’ is a hybrid involving P. quercifolium, but that is doubtful. The short, thick, woody stems, branched at the top, reach a height of 1 foot (30 cm). Leaves are numerous, arising in tufts at the ends of the stems and branches, bright green with a brown or black-purple area in the center, thinner in texture than others of oak-leaved geranium heritage, triangular heart-shaped and deeply three-lobed, the primary lobes deeply divided, the margins sharply toothed. Flowers are rarely produced but are pink with the upper petals ornamented with maroon.
Cultivar: ‘Pungent Peppermint’
A suspected hybrid (P. tomentosum × P. denticulatum), ‘Pungent Peppermint’ (‘Mopsy’) is musty peppermint-scented. It has shrubby, branching, soft white-hairy stems erect to a foot (30 cm) or more. Leaves are more or less triangular in outline, five-lobed in the manner of a feather, the lobes distant, basal lobes again divided but not as deeply, segments linear and rounded at the apex, margins coarsely toothed, gray-green, velvety, white-hairy. Flowers are small, long, pale pink upper petals with carmine-feathering on the upper petals. The essential oil is characterized by 50 to 55 percent isomenthone.
Cultivar: ‘Rose Bengal’
Scented of fruit, and possibly a hybrid involving P. citronellum. Flowers are rose-purple with the upper petals a soft pink-mauve with pale edges.
Cultivar: ‘Round Leaf Rose’
Rose-scented and raised in North Street Greenhouses (now Logee’s), Danielson, Connecticut, said to be a chance seedling of P. capitatum and P. quercifolium. More likely one of the parents was P. vitifolium. This has the habit of P. capitatum, the leaves somewhat similar in shape and lobing but bearing more stiff hairs, the stems more lax. Flowers are small, lavender, in dense clusters.
Cultivar: ‘Shrubland Pet’
‘Shrubland Pet’ (‘Shrubland Rose’) is a hybrid involving P. quercifolium. It was introduced by Beaton of Shrubland Park Nursery, England, in 1849. The habit of grow this vigorous, spreading, branching, the stems lax. Leaves are large, lobed somewhat like those of P. capitatum, glossy and sparsely hairy above with purple area in the center. Flowers are rose-pink with more purple markings in the upper petals. The essential oil is characterized by 26 percent alpha-phellandrene and 11 percent bicyclogermacrene.
Cultivar: ‘Skelton’s Unique’
This rosy-pungent-scented hybrid (possibly P. capitatum and P. quercifolium) originated in England about 1861. It is vigorous with lax branching stems not as densely branched as P. capitatum. Leaves are ruffled, light green with a dark zone, slightly woolly hairy. Flowers are dense, light pink, the upper petals purple-marked like those of P. quercifolium. The essential oil is characterized by 18 to 21 percent geranyl butyrate and 13 to 18 percent alpha-guaiene.
Cultivar: ‘Snowflake’
This rose-scented geranium (a.k.a. ‘Logee’s Snowflake’) is probably a sport of ‘Round Leaf Rose’. It originated at Logee’s, Danielson, Connecticut.
Cultivar: ‘Torento’
The ginger geranium sold today is probably not the same as P. ×nervosum Sweet. Leaves are similar to ‘Lime’ but more sharply toothed, densely hairy beneath. Flowers are rosy lavender with darker markings on the upper petals. ‘Torento’ owes its fragrance to 23 to 25 percent beta-caryophyllene and 12 percent delta-cadinene.
Cultivar: ‘Village Hill Oak’
This pungent hybrid (a.k.a. ‘Village Hill Hybrid’) of P. quercifolium was raised at Village Hill Nursery in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, by Dorcas Brigham as “parsley leaf hybrid.” Growth is like that of P. quercifolium. Leaves are sometimes broader, five- to seven-lobed, lower division of the basal lobes pointed downward, all segments furnished with rounded and pointed lobes. Flowers are more densely clustered, smaller and paler with smaller dark spot on the upper petals. The essential oil has 25 percent p-cymene, 15 percent nerol/citronellol, and 11 percent terpinen-4-ol.
Only the species are included in the following key. A lifetime of work awaits someone who is willing to look at the hybrids and selections more closely.
Key:
1. Leaves divided as in a feather.......................................................... P. abrotanifolium
1a. Leaves with out divisions or lobed and palmate........................................................ 2
2. Flowers long-spurred, the spur twice as long as the sepals or more...................... P. elongatum
2a. Flowers not as above.............................................................................. 3
3. Leaves densely white-hairy below, especially when young......................... P. tomentosum
3a. Leaves green below............................................................................ 4
4. Flowers very small, the sepals mostly 5 mm long or less, the petals seldom exceeding 10 mm in length; low, sprawling, herbaceous.......................................................... 5
5. Petals deep red........................................................... P. grossularioides
5a. Petals white or pale pink, lined with red................................... P. odoratissimum
4a. Flowers larger, the sepals mostly 7 mm long or more, the petals 12 mm long or more; branched, shrubby.......................................................................... 6
6. Leaves small or very small, seldom more than 2 cm long, 1.5 cm wide, three-lobed, the margin strongly crisped, smelling of lemon or lime............................ P. crispum
6a. Leaves larger, with lobed or toothed but not crisped blades, not lemon-scented but often fragrant or pungent-, mint-, rose-, or aromatic-scented.......................... 7
7. Leaves divided to the middle or less into three to five broad, blunt lobes; blades densely and softly hairy on both sides; flowers stalkless, numerous, in a dense, flat topped cluster......................................................... P. capitatum
7a. Leaves divided beyond the middle into rather narrow lobes; blades smooth, stocky, or roughly hairy at least on the upper surface; flowers more or less stalked in a rather loose flat-topped cluster........................................................... 8
8. Lobes of the leaves not strongly toothed, the blade often with dark markings along the veins................................................................. 9
9. Tips of lobes rounded.......................................... P. quercifolium
9a. Tips of lobes tapering to apex................................... P. glutinosum
8a. Lobes of the leaves strongly and sharply toothed.............................. 10
10. Petals notched at the tip; upper surface of the leaf smooth, sticky...................................................................... P. denticulatum
10a. Petals smooth-edged at the tip; upper surface of the leaf hairy, not sticky............................................................................11
11. Margins of the leaves rolled under, the lobes very deeply divided into narrow segments with short, stiff, rasp-like hairs on both surfaces...................................................................... P. radens
11a. Margins of the leaves not rolled under, the lobes rather shallowly toothed with soft, slender hairs on both surfaces........... P. graveolens
P. abrotanifolium (L.f.) Jacq., Pl. hort. schoenbr. 2:6, t. 136. 1800 (P. artemisiaefolium Hort.).
Native country: This species is native to Cape Province to Orange Free State in South Africa and was introduced into England in 1791–1796.
General habit: The southernwood geranium grows to about 1 m, usually less. The slender, woody branches are glandular and often covered with the remains of the leaf stalk bases.
Leaves: The feathery gray-green leaves are 5 to 17 mm long and 5 to 19 mm broad and vary considerably in structure. They are usually three- or five-segmented, each segment again being subdivided into three or more lobes, which are channeled on their upper surface along the midribs. Small, lance-shaped basal leaf appendages are found at the base of relatively long leaf stalks.
Flowers: Flower clusters are unbranched with one to five flowers per stalk. The flowers vary from white to pink or mauve, veined in red or purple. Flowering extends throughout most of the year.
P. capitatum (L.) L’Hér. in Aiton, Hort. kew ed. 1. 2:425. 1789 (P. australe Hort.).
Native country: This rose-scented geranium occurs from Lambert’s Bay all along the coast through Transkei to Zululand in South Africa. It is abundant on sand dunes or low hillsides near the sea, commonly in disturbed areas. This was introduced into Britain by Bentick in 1690.
General habit: This rose-scented geranium is a low-growing shrub or bush with soft-wooded sprawling or erect stems, 0.25 to 1 m tall and up to 1.6 m in diameter. Individual side branches can attain a length of 60 cm. Stems are covered with long, soft hairs of variable density.
Leaves: The crinkly, velvety leaves with heart-shaped bases are shallowly to deeply three-to six-lobed and generally 4.5 cm long and about 6 cm wide. The segments themselves may also be lobed with the leaf margin toothed throughout.
Flowers: The flower clusters are head-shaped and hold eight to twenty flowers. The flowers are commonly cyclamen-purple with beet-root-purple stripes on the two upper and slightly larger petals. Pale pink and dark pink-purple flowers also occur. Plants start to flower in early spring, although scattered flowers may be found throughout the year.
P. citronellum J. J. A. van der Walt, S. African J. Bot. 2:79. t. 5. 1983.
Native country: In nature this herb is confined to a small area around Ladysmith, South Africa. It is usually found near streams in well-drained sandy soil.
General habit: This is a much-branched, evergreen shrub to 2 m and 1 m in diameter. Stems are herbaceous when young, woody at bases, with moderately stiff and coarse hairs and numerous glandular hairs.
Leaves: Leaves are simple, conspicuously veined on the bottom, sparsely coated with stiff to moderately stiff and coarse hairs, with numerous shorter glandular hairs interspersed, green; blade lobed and irregularly incised, base wedge-shaped to heart-shaped, tips of the lobes sharp, margins irregularly toothed, 3.5 to 11 cm long and 1.5 to 6 cm long; appendages at the base of the leaf stalk narrowly triangular to triangular, 6 to 10 mm long and 3 to 6 mm wide.
Flowers: inflorescence a five- to eight-flowered, almost flat flower cluster borne on a branched system of stalks, petals pinkish purple.
P. crispum (Berg.) L’Hér. in Aiton, Hort. kew. ed. 1. 2:430. 1789 (P. hermaniaefolium Hort.).
Native country: This occurs in the southwestern part of the Cape Province, in the winter-rainfall region on sandy soil in the shelter of sandstone boulders. It flowers with a peak during the spring. The lemon-scented geranium was introduced into England from South Africa in 1774 by Francis Masson of Kew.
General habit: The lemon-scented geranium is an erect to decumbent, much-branched sub-shrub or shrub to 1 m high. Stems are herbaceous when young but soon become woody, densely soft-to stiff-hairy interspersed with glandular hairs, green but soon becoming brownish.
Leaves: Leaves are stiff -hairy densely interspersed with glandular hairs, green; blade kidney-shaped, three-lobed, crisped and coarsely toothed on the margin, 2 to 10 mm long and 3 to 15 mm wide; appendages at the base of the leaf stalk heart-shaped, often ending in an abrupt sharp point, 2 to 4 mm long and 2 to 5 mm wide. The inflorescence is a one-to three-flowered, almost flat flower cluster. Flowers are small, white to dark pink or almost purple.
P. denticulatum Jacq., Pl. hort. schoenbr. 2:5, t. 135. 1797.
Native country: This herb is confined to a small area in the Southern Cape of South Africa that receives most of its rainfall during the winter months. It is found in ravines and near streams. It was introduced into England in 1789 by Masson, who was sent there to collect live plants for Kew.
General habit: The pine-scented geranium is an erect, very strongly branched shrub, 1 to 2 m high and up to 1 m in diameter. Stems are smooth, herbaceous when young, woody at base, densely coated with moderately coarse and stiff hairs and glands, dark green, and sometimes flushed with purple.
Leaves: Leaves are deeply twice-divided down to the axis with deeply divided segments, viscous, hard and rigid, densely covered with glandular hairs and covered on the bottom surface with moderately coarse and stiff hairs, green; blade triangular to heart-shaped in outline; segments narrow and grooved on the top, apices toothed, margins irregularly and finely toothed, apices of teeth sharp; blade 4 to 10 cm long and 4.5 to 11 cm wide; leaf stalk 2.5 to 9 cm long; leafy appendages at the base of the leaf stalk asymmetric-triangular, about 6 mm long and 2 to 5 mm wide.
Flowers: Flat flower clusters are three to nine-flowered. Petals are pinkish purple with dark red to purple markings. Flowers almost throughout the year with a peak in spring.
P. elongatum (Cav.) Salisb., Prodr. Stirp. Chap. Allerton 312. 1796.
Native country: The upright coconut geranium is native to South Africa.
General habit: Stems are to 20 cm, slender, erect or ascending.
Leaves: Leaves are glabrous above, zoned with purple to 5 cm across, deeply five- to seven-lobed, lobes sharply toothed, petiole hairy with narrow stipules.
Flowers: The flat flower cluster holds one to five flowers on a 15-cm peduncle, cream- colored, upper petals veined red, narrow.
P. glutinosum (Jacq.) L’Hér. in Aiton, Hort. kew. ed. 1. 2:426. 1789 [P. viscosum (Cav.) Harv. & Sond. ex B. D. Jacks., P. viscosum glutinosum Hort.].
Native country: This occurs from South Africa’s Piketberg in the southwestern Cape to the Kei River in the Eastern Cape. The distribution range is largely correlated with mountain ranges. It grows on well-drained soil in relatively moist habitats, often in close proximity to running water. It was introduced from South Africa to England about 1777.
General habit: The pheasant’s foot geranium is an erect, much-branched shrub to 1.8 m or more. Stems are herbaceous when young but soon grow woody, smooth to hairy but always with numerous glandular hairs, green but becoming brownish with age.
Leaves: Leaves are smooth above, 1.5 to 12 cm long, 5 to 80 mm wide, on short stalks; blade heart-shaped in outline, three-lobed nearly to the base (palmate), lobes broad, basal lobes often irregularly incised, sharply pointed with irregularly toothed margins, often dark-colored about the main veins; appendages at the base of the leaf stalks narrowly triangular to triangular, about 7 mm long and 5 mm wide.
Flowers: The flat flower clusters hold one to eight nearly stalkless flowers, the calyx spur to 1 cm long, about as long as the sepals, petals orchid-pink to rose, the upper broader, crimson-blotched and streaked. The herb flowers sporadically throughout the year, peaking during the spring.
P. graveolens L’Hér. in Aiton, Hort. kew. ed. 1. 2:423. 1789 [P. terebinthaceum (Cav.) Small, non Harvey].
Native country: This was introduced from South Africa to England in 1774 by Francis Masson of Kew.
General habit: The true P. graveolens is erect, much-branched, to 1.3 m high and 1 m in diameter. Stems are herbaceous when young, becoming woody with age, hairy to densely hairy and densely interspersed with glandular hairs, green but becoming brown with age.
Leaves: Leaves are soft to the touch, always with numerous glandular hairs; blade heart-shaped in outline, with the segments irregularly lobed, 2 to 5 cm long and 3 to 10 cm wide; appendages at the base of the leaf stalks asymmetric-triangular, tipped with a sharp point, about 6 mm wide and 4 mm wide.
Flowers: inflorescence is an almost flat flower cluster with three to seven flowers. Flowers are white to pinkish brown with a white margin.
P. grossularioides (L.) L’Hér. in Aiton, Hort. kew. ed. 1. 2:420. 1789 (P. parviflorum Hort.).
Native country: From Mozambique southward along the coast to the Southwestern Cape in South Africa. It is also recorded from Tristan da Cunha and as an alien from Kenya, India, and California. It is generally found in damp or shady places and with stands more frost than most species of Pelargonium. It was cultivated as early as 1731 by Philip Miller in England.
General habit: The coconut-scented geranium is a low spreading annual herb branching from the base and attaining a height of about 20 cm. Individual stems may reach a length of up to 50 cm. They are characterized by their long, angular, and furrowed reddish stems. The stems and leaves are almost smooth to fairly hairy with short hairs and glands. The leaves are round to kidney-shaped with three to five lobes in a palmate arrangement, usually 1 to 4 cm long and 1 to 6 cm wide. Upper leaves are normally much smaller and more deeply incised. Triangular leafy appendages are found at the base of the reddish leaf stalks.
Flowers: The rather small flowers are borne in a flat-topped cluster with three to fifty flowers. The flowers vary from pink to beet-root- purple, but whitish flowers are sometimes found. Plants flower throughout most of the year.
P. odoratissimum (L.) L’Hér. in Aiton, Hort. kew. ed. 1. 2:419. 1789.
Native country: This is common in the Eastern and Southern Cape of South Africa, but it is also recorded from the Lowveld of Transvaal and Natal. It occurs as under-growth in forests or in shady places protected by bushes or rocky ledges. This was introduced into England in 1724 at the Chelsea Physic Garden.
General habit: This is a perennial and prostrate shrublet with a short, thick main stem and sprawling, herbaceous flowering branches which may attain a length of about 60 cm. The height of the plant rarely exceeds 30 cm. The main stem is rough and scaly due to the persisting leaf appendages at the base of the leaf stalks. The roots are slightly tuberous.
Leaves: The round or egg-heart-shaped leaves with blunt-tipped rounded margins are usually 3 to 4 cm in diameter. Leaves on the main stems are normally much larger, up to 12 cm in diameter, than those on the elongated flowering stems. The leaves are apple-green and are covered with fine, short hairs, making them soft to the touch. Small leaf appendages are found at the base of each very long leaf stalk.
Flowers: The flat-topped flower clusters have three to ten flowers. The flowers are relatively small, with the petals only slightly longer than the sepals. Usually the flowers are white with crimson markings on the upper two petals. Pale pink flowers are also known. Plants flower almost throughout the year except in the heat of summer.
P. quercifolium (L.f.) L’Hér. in Aiton, Hort. kew. ed. 1. 2:422. 1789 [P. terebinthaceum (Murr.) Harv. & Sond., non Small, P. karrooense Kunth].
Native country: The oak-leaved geranium was introduced from South Africa to England in 1774 by Francis Masson of Kew. This is confined to the towns of Oudtshoorn and Willowmore and environs. The annual rainfall in these Karoo regions is relatively low and spread throughout the year. The herb flowers throughout the year but most abundantly in spring.
General habit: The oak-leaved geranium is shrubby to 1.8 m. Stems are herbaceous when young but soon become woody, with long glandular hairs densely interspersed, green but becoming brownish with age.
Leaves: Leaves are sticky, hard to the touch, green, 1 to 8 cm long and about as broad at the base, deeply and wavy-lobed, often dark-marked in the center, lobes rounded, toothed, two to three on each side, the basal lobes widely separated from the upper ones.
Flowers: The flat-topped flower cluster holds two to six blossoms. Flowers are almost stalkless, calyx spur about as long as the sepals, petals rose, the upper large, smooth-edged, with large red spot and red veins.
P. radens H. E. Moore, Baileya 3:22. 1955 [P. multifidum Salisb., P. radula (Cav.) L’Hér. in Aiton].
Native country: It occurs from the Southern and Eastern Cape in South Africa, from near Barrydale eastward to Engcobo in the Transkei. It is usually found on mountain-sides and often in ravines near streams. This was introduced into England in 1774 by Francis Masson of Kew.
General habit: This rose-scented geranium is an erect, densely branched shrub usually less than 1 m high, with stems becoming woody near the base. The herbaceous side branches are covered with stiff bristles.
Leaves: Leaves are deeply divided, palmate, triangular in outline, 3 to 5 cm long and 3 to 6.5 cm wide. The rough leaves have narrow segments with margins typically rolled under and blunt lobes. Leaf appendages at the base of the leaf stalk are egg-shaped with a sharp point.
Flowers: The two- to six-flowered cluster is borne on a short stem. Petals are pale purple or pink-purple with beet-root-purple streaks on the upper two. Plants usually flower in the spring.
P. tomentosum Jacq., Icon. pl. rar. 3:10. t. 537. 1794.
Native country: The peppermint-scented geranium occurs in South Africa, confined to mountains where it occurs in semi-shaded, moist habitats, usually on the margins of ravine forest near streams, in sandy soil. It was introduced to England prior to 1700, probably by Francis Masson of Kew.
General habit: The peppermint-scented geranium is a low-growing, much-branched, sprawling subshrub, up to 50 cm tall and 1.5 m in diameter. Stems are soft to the touch, herbaceous, brittle, with long, soft glands, and somewhat wavy hairs, green.
Leaves: Leaves are soft, hairy, with numerous glandular hairs, green; the blade is heart-shaped with three to five lobes, apices of lobes mostly rounded (rarely sharp), coated on the top with long, soft, somewhat wavy hairs, coated on the bottom with a dense, wool-like covering of matted, tangled hairs of medium length, margins with irregularly rounded teeth, 2.5 to 11 cm long and 3.5 to 12 cm wide; leaf stalk usually longer than blade; leaf appendages at base triangular to egg-shaped, sharp to pinched at tip, 6 to 20 mm long and 4 to 12 mm wide.
Flowers: Flat-topped cluster bears four to fifteen flowers. Petals are white with purple markings. Flowering occurs in spring.
beefsteak plant
Family: Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Growth form: annual to 39 inches (1 m) tall
Hardiness: cannot with stand frost
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: friable garden loam, pH 5.0 to 7.5, average 6.1
Propagation: seeds in spring, 27,000 seeds per ounce (952/g)
Culinary use: limited (not GRAS)
Craft use: none
Landscape use: allow to reseed cottage-garden style; purple forms are excellent contrasts in garden
Chinese: baisuzi
Japanese: shiso zoku
Beefsteak plant looks so much like basil that some gardeners believe they have discovered a “perennial” basil, or, at the very least, a basil that self-sows so extensively that they will never have to purchase basil seeds or plants again.
This claim of a reseeding basil is another example of the old adage that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Although it is not a perennial basil, beefsteak plant can stand on its own as an interesting, flavorful herb. An alternative name used by gardeners who must endure continual emergence of seedlings every spring is “wild coleus.” And a word to the wise: ‘Magilla Perilla’ and ‘Magilla Vanilla’ are coleus [Solenostemon scutellarioides (L.) Codd] (tender perennial, filaments basally united), not perilla (annual, filaments not united).
Perilla frutescens
Perilla is a genus of probably only one very variable species native to India and eastern Asia. The generic name is derived from a native East Indian name, while frutescens means “fruitful.” The name beefsteak plant is probably derived from the bloody purple-red color of the leaves of many forms. Leaves may also be green, green on top and purple-red on the bottom, crisped and wrinkled or flat, but the application of the cultivar names is poorly defined in the literature. Many different scents of beefsteak plant also exist.
In Japan different forms of beefsteak plant are given different names: e-goma, remon-egoma, tora-no-o-jiso, chirimen-jiso, and shiso. The purple-red leaves of shiso are used to color apricots, gingers, and tubers of Jerusalem artichokes; when used this way the leaves are salted to remove the water-soluble cyanogenic glycosides, which reduces their harshness. The somewhat anise-scented leaves are used to flavor bean curd or as a garnish for tempura. The flower spikes are used in soups or fried, while the seedlings are used to flavor raw fish.
We cannot recommend most forms of beefsteak plant for culinary applications. Perilla frutescens has no GRAS status, and many forms are rich in perilla ketone, a chemical shown to be a potent lung toxin and documented to produce acute pulmonary edema in sheep, atypical interstitial pneumonia and acute pulmonary emphysema and edema in cattle, and restrictive lung disease in horses.
Most forms of beefsteak plant are documented to produce contact dermatitis on sensitive individuals after prolonged handling. Japanese researchers have reported that perilla ketone is “an active principle of intestinal propulsion in mice.” We don’t know if the same action follows in humans, but we shudder to think of the results of eating too much shiso in a Japanese restaurant! The phenolic constituents of P. frutescens may inhibit globular sclerosis, a kidney disease, and extracts may inhibit tumor necrosis.
Forms of P. frutescens high in perillaldehyde, providing a cumin-like odor, are popular in Japan as aojiso for suppressing the sardine odor of niboshi soup stock. The Vietnamese cultivar ‘Tia To’ has no perilla ketone but instead is rich in perillaldehyde, which has sedative and other benficial properties. Although it was recommended for GRAS status by the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association in 1978, its full safety remains undetermined.
Culture of beefsteak plant is almost too easy; it requires friable garden loam in full sun. The herb generously reseeds and may become a weed. ‘Tia To’ usually does not bloom until very late in the fall or early winter and rarely has time to produce seeds; aside from being the safest beefsteak plant to consume, it has the fewest horticultural bad habits. Other cultivars available include ‘Atropurpurea’ with dark purple leaves; ‘Crispa’ (‘Nankinensis’) with crinkled bright purple or bronze leaves mottled with green, rose, or pink; and ‘Laciniata’ with all-green, deeply incised leaves.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of beefsteak plant typically has trace to 94 percent perilla ketone, 0 to 64 percent perillaldehyde, 0 to 36 percent elemicin, 0 to 30 percent naginaketone, 0 to 26 percent beta-caryophyllene, 0 to 11 percent beta-pinene, and/or 0 to 10 percent beta-ionone, usually providing an anise-like odor. The essential oil of ‘Tia To’ has 48 percent perillaldehyde and 27 percent limonene, providing a wonderful lemony cumin-like odor.
An unnamed Chinese form has been reported with 55 percent piperitone and 31 percent limonene, while an unnamed Vietnamese form has 25 percent piperitone, 28 percent limonene, and 17 percent beta-caryophyllene, giving both a lemony mint odor. A chemotype from Thailand has 36 percent piperitenone and 24 percent limonene, again, with a lemony mint odor. Other types are high in elsholtziaketone, isoegomaketone, myristicin, rosefuran, and/or dill apiole. The purple-red pigment of the leaves is cyanidin-3-(6-para-coumaroyl-beta-D-glucoside) 5-beta-D-glucoside. The seeds are rich in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid.
P. frutescens (L.) Britton, Mem. Torrey Bot. Club 5:277. 1894 (P. ocymoides L.).
Native country: Beefsteak plant is native to the Himalayan region but naturalized in Europe and North America.
General habit: Beefsteak plant is a hairy annual to 1 m.
Leaves: Leaves are 4.5 to 8 × 3 to 6 cm, broadly egg-shaped, deeply round-toothed, pinched at the tip, wedge-shaped at the base, stalked. Leaves may be purple, green, or a combination of purple and green.
Flowers: Flowers are white in a 3 to 10 cm inflorescence with floral leaves.
red bay
Family: Lauraceae
Growth form: tree to 66 feet (20 m)
Hardiness: routinely hardy to Zone 7
Light: full sun to part shade
Water: moist but not wet
Soil: acid, well-drained, sandy soil
Propagation: cuttings or seeds
Culinary use: substitute for Grecian bay but not GRAS
Craft use: wreaths
Landscape use: evergreen specimen tree
The spicy leaves of red bay are used on the southeastern coast of North America as a substitute for Grecian bay (Laurus nobilis). Thus, as you might imagine, red bay looks and smells like Grecian bay. While commonly gathered from the wild, it is easily cultivated from southern Zone 7 south in sandy to rich, moist soil and full to part sun.
Persea borbonia
This attractive evergreen is nearly pest-free and deserves to be more widely known. Charles Sprague Sargent remarked in 1895: “Although it is one of the most beautiful and valuable of the evergreen trees of the North American forest, the Red Bay has been neglected as an ornament for parks and gardens, and it is now rarely seen in cultivation.”
Persea was the ancient name of an Oriental tree, while borbonia commemorates the Gaston de Bourbon (1608–1660), a patron of botany who was Duke of Orleans and son of Henry IV of France. The genus includes about 150 tropical species, and you probably already know P. americana Mill., the avocado. Many species of Persea have fragrant leaves, from bay-like to anise-like, and a number of species are economically important for their wood.
A closely related species, swamp bay (P. palustris Sarg.), occurs as far north as southern Delaware and also bears spicy leaves with fuzzy, brown undersides. Neither red bay or swamp bay is considered GRAS.
Important chemistry: We examined the essential oil of the leaves of red bay from Florida and found 32 to 39 percent camphor and 12 to 22 percent 1,8-cineole, providing a camphoraceous bay-like odor.
P. borbonia (L.) Sprengel, Syst. 2:268. 1825.
Native country: Red bay is native to low woodlands and coastal forests from Virginia to Florida, west to Texas along bogs, streams, and swamps.
General habit: Red bay is a tree to 20 m., often with a cylindrical shape and dense, round crown. The trunk often reaches 1 m in diameter.
Leaves: The evergreen leaves are simple, lance-shaped, broadest near the middle, or with almost uniformly wide sides, 5 to 20 × 2 to 8 cm, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base.
Flowers: The greenish flowers are produced in few-flowered, compact, branched clusters.
Fruits/seeds: The dark blue fruits are olive-like, 0.7 to 1.2 cm in diameter.
Family: Polygonaceae
Growth form: herbaceous perennial to about 6 inches (15 cm)
Hardiness: marginally hardy to Zone 7
Light: part sun
Water: wet; standing water preferred
Soil: garden loam
Propagation: cuttings during summer
Culinary use: limited (not GRAS)
Craft use: none
Landscape use: pond margins
Vietnamese: rau r
m
Rau rm, often pronounced “zow-zam,” is widely sold in the United States as “Vietnamese coriander.” The odor is that of cilantro with a hint of lemon. Rau rm is used by the Vietnamese to garnish meat dishes, especially fowl, and is also eaten with duck eggs. The herb is also an ingredient of a Vietnamese pickled dish resembling sauerkraut. Rau rm has no GRAS status.
Rau rm is a perennial that resembles the European water-pepper [P. hydropiper (L.)Delarbe], an annual, with smooth, pale green, lance-shaped leaves marked with red lines. From the similar reported chemistry, this may be the same plant identified as P. minor (Huds.) Opiz, known as kesom in Malaysia, but rau rm does not produce the spikes of dark pink flowers and small black seed-like fruits of P. minor. A further problem with its correct botanical name is that no one has comprehensively tackled the Asian species since Steward’s work in 1930.
The genus Persicaria includes about 100 species of the north temperate region; most are aquatic scramblers. Persicaria is derived from Persia, similar to that of peach, Prunus persica (L.) Batch. Some botanists are adamant that this and similar species should be classified in the genus Polygonum.
Persicaria odorata
Rau rm is typical for the genus and requires a rich, moist soil in semi-shade, although full sun is desired if abundant moisture is available; under less-than-desirable conditions, the leaves turn brown. Normally treated as a tender perennial, it may overwinter in Zone 7 on pond margins during mild winters.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of rau rm is dominated by 11 to 52 percent do dec-anal, 3 to 37 percent beta-caryophyllene, and 5 to 28 percent decanal, providing a lemony, soapy odor that has been characterized by some as the odor of lemon dish detergent.
P. odorata (Lour.) Soják, Preslia 46(2):154. 1974 (Polygonum odoratum Lour.).
Native country: Rau rm is native to southeastern Asia.
General habit: Rau rm bears branching, trailing stems, smooth, often reddish, reaching to about 15 cm.
Leaves: Leaves are narrowly lance-shaped to lance-egg-shaped, marked with red lines. Characteristic of the family Polygonaceae, each leaf has a tubular, sheathing, elongated appendage at the base, encircling the stem; this is called an ocrea. The ocreae of rau rm are beset with a marginal fringe of hairs but otherwise smooth.
Flowers: Flowers, when they appear, are terminal, dark pink.
parsley
Family: Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)
Growth form: biennial to 27 inches (75 cm) when flowering
Hardiness: with stands frost
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: well-drained garden loam, pH 4.9 to 8.2, average 6.2
Propagation: seeds in spring, 15,000 seeds per ounce (529/g)
Culinary use: a multitalented herb used for garnish, meats, vegetables, soups, and more
Craft use: limited
Landscape use: excellent edging
French: persil
German: Petersilie
Dutch: peterselie
Italian: prezzomolo
Spanish: perejil
Portuguese: salsa
Swedish: persilja
Russian: pyetrushka
Chinese: yang-hu-sui
Japanese: paseri
Arabic: 
Parsley is the first herb that most Americans recognize on sight because it is the most-used herb in the United States, but it may be one of the most misunderstood herbs in the garden. Its most common use is as an uneaten, curly-leaved, green garnish, especially on restaurant dinner plates; it is a shame that this garnish is usually thrown away because the leaves are really quite high in vitamins: A, B1, B2, and C; niacin, calcium, and iron. Elsewhere in the world, parsley
plays a key role in a variety of prepared foods; parsley pesto is an alternative or supplement to basil pesto, and the root of the Hamburg or turnip-rooted type is consumed. The clean, delicate flavor also provides a breath sweetener.
The leaves of parsley have GRAS status at 200 to 14,963 ppm, the oil is GRAS at 0.2 to 8.5 ppm, and the oleoresin is GRAS at 5 to 392 ppm. Because myristicin, a major component of the essential oil of parsley leaves, inhibits tumor formation and increases the detoxifying action of the enzyme system glutathione S-transferase, it has been nominated as a potential cancer-fighting agent. The furocoumarins from parsley leaves are antimicrobial. The essential oil of parsley is also antioxidant.
The genus Petroselinum includes three European species. The generic name is derived from the Greek for rock, petros, which alludes to its native habitat of cliffs, rocks, and old walls, and selinum, celery. The specific name refers to the crisped leaves of many cultivars.
Petroselinum crispum
Although parsley is a biennial, it occasionally blooms the first year, which reduces yields; parsley that is subjected to thirty days of temperatures below 40°F (4.4°C) will flower. Parsley in its second year is usually useless as an herb because the leaves turn bitter after the flower stems rise from the center of the plant in early spring. Th us, when grown for its foliage, parsley is considered as an annual.
The bright green, fern-like leaves provide a delightful accent in the sunny herb garden and make an excellent edging. Three types of parsley are grown in the United States: common (curled-leaf, var. crispum), plain (flat-leaved or Italian, var. neapolitanum Danert), and Hamburg or turnip-rooted [var. tuberosum (Bernh.) Crov.]. The first two are used in sauces, stews, soups, prepared meat products, and condiments, while the latter’s large, edible root is considered a vegetable. Essential oil varies from 0 to 0.16 percent (fresh weight) but is not correlated with flatness of the leaves; as with other herbs, genes are important to produce a flavorful parsley.
Curly-leaved cultivars include ‘Afro’, ‘Banquet’, ‘Bravour’, ‘Curlina’, ‘Dark Moss Colored’, ‘Decorator’, ‘Deep Green’, ‘Envy’, ‘Evergreen’, ‘Ferro’, ‘Forest Green’, ‘Improved Market Gardener’, ‘Moss Curled’, ‘Paramount’, ‘Perfection’, and ‘Sherwood’. Flat-leaf types include ‘Perfection’, ‘Plain’, and ‘Plain Italian Dark Green’.
In Italy, the cultivar ‘Catalogno’, with its long, thick stems and large, dark, flat, green leaves is considered to be the true Italian parsley, while other flat-leaved parsley selections are “comune” (common or ordinary). In the United States, few firms sell this variety, which is usually listed as ‘Giant Italian’, but it is superior in flavor and yield to other flat-leaved parsleys.
Seeds (technically fruits known as schizocarps containing two mesocarps) have slow and asynchronous germination, with 10 and 28 days being allowed for the first and last germination counts, respectively. Parsley’s slow and erratic germination has given rise to the fanciful tale that the seed has to go to Hell nine times and back before it will germinate.
The bright green, fern-like leaves provide a
delightful accent in the sunny herb garden
and make an excellent edging.
The slow germination can be attributed in part to a high concentration in the seeds of heraclenol, a coumarin, but this is easily leached out with water. Germination thus can be enhanced by soaking the seeds in aerated water for three days at 77°F (25°C), draining, rinsing, and then sowing ¼ inch deep (0.6 cm) in a fine seedbed. Seed priming also has benefitted parsley germination. Priming is the exposure of seeds to a low external water potential that is created either osmotically (by the presence of solutes) or matrically (by the presence of colloids). During this exposure, pregerminative physiological, biochemical, and anatomical activities occur, but the seed moisture concentration is sufficiently low to prevent germination. Priming benefits subsequent seed germination and seedling emergence, particularly under stressful seed bed conditions. Recent work showed that embryo volume, but most particularly that of the radicle, increased with increasing duration of osmotic priming. Dr. Wallace Pill at the University of Delaware found that seed may be primed, after leaching, with aerated polyethylene glycol (PEG) 8000 for 4.5 days at 77°F; the seed may then be dried for sowing with mechanical equipment (Pill and Killian, 2000). They also found that matric priming in fine, exfoliated vermiculite at -0.5 MPa for 4 to 7 days at 68 or 86°F (20 or 30°C) will result in greater germination (89 percent) than priming, but priming at 86°F (30°C) with 1 mM GA3 (gibberellic acid) resulted in the greatest emergence percentage, hypocotyl length, and shoot dry weight. Sowing “pre-germinated seeds” (germinated for four days at 59°F [15°C] in aerated water) in a hydroxyethyl cellulose gel carrier resulted in improved seedling emergence compared to sowing primed seeds. Seed started indoors and transplanted into pots shows a more rapid and uniform germination with out special treatment, probably because of constant moisture levels and warm soil temperatures. Parsley presents no problems as a transplant as long as it is properly hardened off for increased light and decreased temperature before it is planted in the garden.
In other aspects, parsley should be treated as a leafy green vegetable and grown in rich, moist soil with good drainage and a pH of 5.3 to 7.3. Depending upon the soil and environmental conditions, commercial seeding rates may be 12 to 60 pounds per acre (14 to 67 kg/ha). For the home gardener, plant seeds 3/8 to 2 inches apart in 3 to 4 rows 18 to 22 inches apart on raised beds. Sow seeds in the early spring as soon as the soil can be worked. An N-P-K fertilizer ratio of 1-1-1 or 3-1-2 should be used, depending upon soil tests. Sidedress with nitrogen fertilizer after the first cutting if a second crop is desired. In the garden parsley is allelopathic, that is, it prevents the growth of closely surrounding plants by releasing chemicals from its leaves and roots. Yet hoeing is necessary to remove weeds, even when registered herbicides are used.
Parsley may be harvested by hand continuously throughout the year as a fresh market culinary green. The outer leaves should be clipped to 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.6 cm) above the crown. Up to three sowings of seeds may be possible in some states for harvests April to December, and the home gardener will find that a cold frame will provide fresh parsley all winter.
Parsley is best preserved by freezing rather than drying, because its subtle flavor dissipates with heat; yet, dried parsley has a market, and we import dried parsley from Israel and Mexico. Parsley can be stored for long periods using modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) for 77 days at 32°F (0°C) and 35 days at 41°F (5°C). Parsley may also be distilled for an oil which has some use in flavor work. If parsley is grown for seed, the most common pollinators are syrphid flies and honeybees.
Pythium damp-off of seedlings and adult plants may be a problem, but it is easily avoided by treating the seeds with a registered fungicide, avoiding overcrowding, and maximizing ventilation around the plants. Aphids, cabbage loopers, beet armyworms, carrot weevils, corn earworms, flea beetles, leafhoppers, or tarnished plant bugs may cause problems and should be controlled with registered insecticides. The black swallowtail caterpillar, Papilio polyxenes Fabricius, can consume a small plant in a day or two. Root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita, must be controlled with fumigants. Septoria leaf spot and aster yellows have also been reported on parsley.
Important chemistry: The typical odor of parsley is primarily due to para-1,3,8-menthatriene. The essential oil of parsley leaves is dominated by 1 to 92 percent myristicin, 6 to 65 percent para-1,3,8-menthatriene, trace to 54 percent apiole, and 4 to 30 percent beta-phellandrene, providing a nutmeg-spearmint-celery-oily odor. The essential oil of parsley seeds is dominated by 1 to 94 percent myristicin and trace to 80 percent apiole, trace to 41 percent alpha-pinene, and 1 to 27 percent beta-pinene, providing a nutmeg-celery-pine odor. The essential oil of parsley root is dominated by 17 to 77 percent apiole and 3 to 30 percent myristicin, providing a celery-nutmeg odor.
P. crispum (Mill.) Nym. ex A. W. Hill, Hand-list Herb. Plt. Kew ed. 3. 122. 1925 (P. hortense Auct., P. sativum Hoffm.).
Native country: Parsley is native to southeast Europe and western Asia.
General habit: Parsley is a biennial herb to 75 cm.
Leaves: Leaves are triangular in outline, fern-like, and lobed three times, the lobes 10 to 20 mm, often crispate in cultivars.
Flowers: Flowers are greenish yellow, in an umbel.
Fruits/seeds: Fruits are 2.5 to 3 mm, broadly egg-shaped.
Aztec sweet herb
Family: Verbenaceae
Growth form: herbaceous shrubby perennial to 2 feet (60 cm)
Hardiness: hardy only to Zone 9
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not wet
Soil: well-drained garden loam
Propagation: cuttings or seeds
Culinary use: camphor-scented sweetener but not recommended (not GRAS)
Craft use: none
Landscape use: container plant
The Aztec sweet herb was mentioned in a monograph Natural History of New Spain written between 1570 and 1576 by Spanish physician Francisco Hernández. The herb was known by the Nahuatl name Tzonpelic xihuitl, literally translated as “sweet herb.” The earliest available book on medicinal herbs used by the Aztecs is Libellus de Medicinalibus Inodorum Herbis, an herbal written in Nahuatl by Aztec physician Martín de la Cruz and published in Latin in 1552; in this work the Aztec sweet herb is called Tzopelicacoc. The General History of the Things of New Spain by Spanish friar Bernardino de Sahagún also mentions Tzopelic xiuitl. Common names in Latin America are hierba dulce, hierba buena, neuctixihuitl (“honey herb”), orozuz, orozul, salvia santa, and corronchoco.
In the late nineteenth century, Parke, Davis and Co. used the Aztec sweet herb under the name “Lippia Mexicana” in a concentrated tincture for the treatment of bronchitis, and in Mexico, an aqueous decoction of it is still used to treat a variety of ills.
The Aztec sweet herb has been more frequently known in the horticultural literature as Lippia dulcis, but following Harold Moldenke, who wrote the latest monograph of the Verbenaceae, the correct name should be Phyla scaberrima. The scientific name is derived from the Greek for “tribe,” phyla, referring to the compound flower heads that characterize the genus, and the Latin for “most rough,” scaberrima.
The Aztec sweet herb bears small, rough- surfaced, egg-shaped leaves, which often turn red-purple in bright sun, arising from a central rosette and bearing terminal elongated, football-like heads of white flowers. Since it is hardy only in tropical and semi-tropical areas, this is best grown as a potted plant. In winter the stems drop their leaves, dying back to the central rosette, and produce new green shoots in spring.
The vegetative parts of the Aztec sweet herb contain hernandulcin, which is about three times sweeter than sucrose but with a perceptible aftertaste and some bitterness. No toxicity or mutagenesis has been observed for hernandulcin. The raw leaves are also scented with camphor, so the overall effect is similar to consuming sweet moth balls. Camphor is toxic, particularly for small children, causing nausea, vomiting, central nervous system depression, and coma. Additionally, the long use of the P. scaberrima as an emmenagogue in Mexico alludes to its potential abortifacient properties, possibly from the camphor. Thus, since P. scaberrima does not have GRAS status, we cannot recommend its consumption.
Phyla scaberrima
Important chemistry: The leaves of the Aztec sweet herb contain a bisbolane sesquiterpene, hernandulcin, as 0.004 percent (w/w) of the dried herb. The essential oil of typical P. scaberrima is characterized by 53 percent camphor and 16 percent camphene, providing a camphoraceous odor. Plants from Cuba have 11 percent beta-caryophyllene and 9 percent 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and only a trace of camphor.
P. scaberrima (A. L. Juss.) Moldenke, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veget. 41:64. 1936 (Lippia dulcis Trevir.).
Native country: The Aztec sweet herb is native to Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Morelos, Oaxaca, and Yucatán in Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and Colombia.
General habit: The Aztec sweet herb is an erect shrubby perennial to less than 60 cm high.
Leaves: The leaves are long-stalked, egg-shaped, coarsely toothed, rough-surfaced, and green to red-purple.
Flowers: The white flowers are produced in a head about 6 mm in diameter, elongating with age.
Fruits/seeds: The fruits are tiny and pale brown.
anise
Family: Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)
Growth form: annual to 2 feet (60 cm)
Hardiness: seedlings can with stand minor frost
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: light, pH 6.5 to 8.2, average 7.2
Propagation: seeds in spring, 6,500 seeds per ounce (230/g)
Culinary use: candies, liqueurs, chewing gum, teas, pastries
Craft use: none
Landscape use: short-lived; rear of border, best in vegetable plot
French: anis vert
German: Anis
Dutch: anijs
Italian: anice verde, anisio, anacio
Spanish: anís, matalahuga, matalahuva
Portuguese: aniz, erva doce
Swedish: gran
Russian: anis
Chinese: huai-hsiang, huei-hsiang, pa-yueh-chu
Japanese: anason
Arabic: shâmar, razianaj, anisun
Anise reminds us of those anonymous perfumers who create widely recognized fragrances but under the name of a couturier: anise never quite gets the recognition that it deserves. Anise seeds (really fruits) are used to flavor licorice candy; the notion that there are “licorice-scented” plants should be amended to reflect the relative lack of aroma in the sweetener licorice; “anise-scented” more accurately describes the scent.
Anise seeds are also used to flavor liqueurs (Anisette, Ouzo, Raki) and are also useful in some meat dishes (lamb shanks), ice cream, candy, chewing gum, condiments, teas, and pastries (pizzelles). Because of a similarity of flavor, anise seeds are sometimes confused with the seeds of fennel, which are used in sweet Italian sausage; the seeds themselves, however, are not identical in appearance. The seeds of anise are considered GRAS at 2 to 5,000 ppm, while the essential oil is GRAS at 7 to 3,200 ppm.
The genus Pimpinella includes about 150 species of Eurasia. The generic name is of uncertain medieval origin, while the specific name is Latin for anise.
Anise seed is primarily imported from Turkey, but Spain and China also supply the United States market. Anise oil (sometimes confused with essential oil from Chinese star anise, Illicium verum J. D. Hook.) comes primarily from China, Spain, and Guatemala. Anise essential oil is anti-inflammatory. Aqueous suspensions of anise have been found to protect rats against chemically induced gastric ulcers. Anethole, the chief constituent of anise oil, has been shown to be antifungal and antibacterial; it is also an insecticide and effective against houseflies in laboratory experiments. p-Anisaldehyde has been found to be acaricidal. Anise seed tea should not be used to increase lactation because it may be toxic to newborns. Anise seed, in particular (E)-anethole, has some estrogenic activity.
Pimpinella anisum
Anise is an easily raised annual found wild in the Middle East but widely cultivated in Europe, the United States, China, and Chile. The seed (technically fruit) of this lacy, delicate plant, similar in appearance to dill and reaching to about 2 feet (60 cm) high, should be sown in warm soil in spring; it requires at least 120 days frost-free days in order to fruit properly. Choose a spot in well-drained, friable garden loam in full sun. Anise is very susceptible to drought, so irrigation may be necessary. Plant seed about half an inch (1.3 cm) deep in rows 18 to 30 inches (46 to 76 cm) apart, one or two seeds per inch (one or two seeds per 2.5 cm). This translates to a commercial rate of 5 to 10 pounds seed per acre (5.6 to 11 kg/ha). Germination occurs in seven to fourteen days at 70°F (21°C). Carefully thin seedlings to 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 cm) apart; anise transplants poorly. Growth is spindly, and plants tend to flop unless soil is firmed at the base of the plant.
While the seed in the umbel is still green, pull the plants out of the ground or cut the tops by hand, tie into bundles, and stack in conical piles with the fruiting heads toward the center. Thresh after drying and separate seeds from chaff. For the home gardener, expect a harvest of about 1 to 2 tablespoons of seed from each plant. In California, average commercial yields range from 500 to 700 pounds seed per acre (560 to 785 kg/ha).
Important chemistry: The essential oil of anise seeds is dominated by 67 to 94 percent (E)-anethole. The essential oil of the foliage is dominated by 29 percent (E)-anethole, 15 percent germacrene D, and 12 percent beta-bisabolene. Anethole is very similar in structure to estragole (methyl chavicol) in tarragon and safrole in sassafras, and so these oils smell similar but not identical.
All three constituents supply a somewhat sweet flavor, and the greater the concentration of anethole in anise oil, the sweeter the flavor. The roots contain 52 percent beta-bisabolene and 13 to 16 percent pregeijerene (1,5-dimethylcyclodeca-1,5,7-triene), and the trans-anethole is only 3 percent.
P. anisum L., Sp. pl. 264. 1753.
Native country: The native distribution of anise is unknown, but it probably originated in Asia.
General habit: Anise is a finely hairy annual 10 to 61 cm high.
Leaves: Young leaves are broad, up to 2.5 cm wide, and kidney-shaped, resembling flat parsley, while the older leaves are feathery like dill.
Flowers: Flowers have white petals and are arranged in an umbel.
Fruits/seeds: The fruits of anise are 3 to 5 mm long, flattened, egg-shaped to oblong, downy, and gray-brown, with lengthwise ribs.
piper
Family: Piperaceae
Growth form: vines, shrubs, or small trees
Hardiness: most not hardy above Zone 9
Light: part shade
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: well-drained garden loam
Propagation: cuttings during summer
Culinary use: limited beyond black pepper and cubebs (most not GRAS)
Craft use: potpourri
Landscape use: container plant, sun room or greenhouse
The genus Piper, derived from the ancient Latin name, includes over 1,000 species of vines, shrubs, and small trees. The best-known species are P. nigrum L., black pepper; P. cubeba L. fil., cubebs; and P. betle L., the betel leaf or pan. The fruits or leaves of many other species are also used for seasoning. Many have heart-shaped leaves, and all have an inflorescence of tiny white flowers on a fleshy spike. All are tropical greenhouse plants not hardy above Zone 9.
makulan
Spanish: hojas, acuyo, hinojo sabalero, hoja santa (misapplied)
Piper auritum is the only Central American Piper species in general cultivation in the United States, but it is often confused with P. sanctum (Miq.) Schlecht, ex Miq., hoja santa, hierba santa, or acuyo. The bases of the leaves of P. auritum are unequal and overlapping and create an ear-like appearance, which is the meaning of the specific name. The large, velvety, heart-shaped leaves, studded with crystal-like glands, have a wonderful sassafras odor from which derives the alternate common name, root beer plant. The stems have swollen nodes and become quite woody; they are frequently used as canes or walking sticks.
Crushed makulan leaves are used by natives in Panama to attract fish during the dry season, and the fish taste of this sassafras-scented herb after feeding regularly on the leaf. In Veracruz the leaves are ground with garlic, chiles, and roasted tomatoes to make a sauce for fish; the leaves are sautéed with shrimp and roasted peppers. The large leaves are also used to line fish or chicken casseroles that are laced with spicy chile sauces; in the southwestern United States, the leaves are wrapped around pork tamales before cooking.
Because of the known liver toxicity and carcinogenicity of safrole, the main component of the plant’s essential oil, and because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has prohibited safrole in foods since 1960, we cannot recommend makulan in food (see sassafras for a discussion of safrole).
If you want to grow makulan for non-food applications, grow it in rich, well-drained soil in dappled afternoon shade. Ample moisture should be supplied. Since this must be moved indoors north of Zone 9, we recommend the plant be grown in large pots.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of makulan is dominated by about 65 to 93 percent safrole. Makulan also has capharadione A and B, two aporphine-type alkaloids of unknown physiological activity.
lá lót
Vietnamese: lá lót, cay lót
This is one of a number of herbs that reached U.S. shores with refugees who fled Vietnam at the end of the war in 1975. The glossy heart-shaped leaves of P. lolot are used by the Vietnamese to impart a delicate flavor to roast beef or to a type of shish kabob; to use the leaves for such dishes it is necessary to first dip them in boiling water to keep them from burning. They are then wrapped around small pieces of beef, secured with a toothpick, and placed on a skewer.
Lá l
t is a very tender perennial vine, sensitive to frost but easily overwintered in the greenhouse or sunny windowsill. Otherwise it can be purchased from Asian food stores that handle fresh Vietnamese herbs. Lá lt does not have GRAS status.
Piper lolot
Important chemistry: The essential oil of the leaf of lá lt has 26 percent beta-caryophyllene. The stem oil has 31 percent beta-caryophyllene, while the rhizome oil has 28 percent beta-caryophyllene.
Key:
1. Leaves hairy underneath, 20 to 55 × 12 to 30 cm.............................................. P. auritum
1a. Leaves smooth underneath, 6 to 10 × 5 to 9 cm................................................... P. lolot
P. auritum Humb., Bonpl. & Kunth, Nov. gen. sp. 1:54. 1815.
Native country: Makulan ranges from Mexico to Colombia and to some of the islands of the West Indies.
General habit: Makulan is a shrub or slender tree to about 6 m tall.
Leaves: Leaves are stalked on 4 to 10 cm petioles, 20 to 55 × 12 to 30 cm, egg-shaped to widest at the center with the ends equal but with very unequal heart-shaped bases, tapering abruptly to the sharp, blunt, or pinched tip. The upper surface is smooth to the touch, while the lower surface has whitish hairs.
Flowers: Flowers are tiny and white on a fleshy spike.
P. lolot C. DC., Annuaire Conserv. Jard. Bot. Genève 2:272. 1898.
Native country: Lá lt is native to Vietnam.
General habit: Lá lt is a perennial vine to several meters.
Leaves: Leaves are smooth, glossy, unequally heart-shaped, tapering to a point, 6 to 10 × 5 to 9 cm.
Flowers: The tiny white flowers are carried on a fleshy spike.
plectranthus
Family: Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Growth form: succulent shrubs
Hardiness: very sensitive to frost
Light: full to part sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: well-drained garden loam, pH 5.2 to 6.8 (P. amboinicus)
Propagation: cuttings during summer
Culinary use: limited (not GRAS)
Craft use: none
Landscape use: container plant
The botanical name means “spurflower” and is derived from two Greek words, plectron, a spur, and anthos, a flower. Controversy exists on whether Cuban oregano should be designated as Coleus or Plectranthus. Plectranthus, Coleus, and several allied genera contain similar species in which the genera are delineated on the basis of rather trivial characteristics. Coleus was described by João de Loureiro in his Flora Cochinchinensis in 1790 to separate those species in which the stamens are fused into a tube (monadelphous stamens). Other botanists have not consistently followed Loureiro and instead have lumped these species into the genus Plectranthus, described by Charles-Louis L’Héritier de Brutelle in his Stirpes Novae aut Minus Cognitae (1788), primarily because the stamens do not form a satisfactory basis for consistently separating these genera.
Controversy also exists on the correct identity of the plants commonly called Vick’s™ plant, after the aromatic chest rub traditionally used to treat colds. At least three different species of Plectranthus are cultivated under this name, and the correct botanical identities are still unknown. The Vick’s™ plant may include P. intra terraneus S. T. Blake of Australia, P. marrubioides Benth. of Kenya, P. ornatus Codd of Ethiopia to Tanzania, and P. coeruleus (Guerke) Agnew of Kenya, but many incorrect specific epithets of Plectranthus are used by growers. To confuse matters even more, one of these three, small-leaved Vick’s™ plants is sold as Cuban oregano. More study is needed to correctly identify these species, and it may prove monumental because the genus Plectranthus includes some 300 species of the tropics and warm Old World.
No Plectranthus species has GRAS status.
Cuban oregano
Spanish: orégano, orégano brujo, orégano de Cartagna, orégano de 
, orégano Frances, sugánda, clavo, limon, orégano torogil de limon, bildu, latai
Bengali: pathor chur, pater chur, owa, pashana bledi
Vietnamese: cn dy lá
The botanical name is derived from Amboina (the Moluccas Islands) in Indonesia. Also called Puerto Rican oregano, Indian borage, or Spanish thyme, Cuban oregano may be substituted for Greek oregano (Origanum vulgare subsp. hirtum), but the large (up to 2¾ inches or 7 cm long), fleshy, fuzzy leaves are not easily manipulated by cooks accustomed to using crushed, dried oregano. In parts of India, the leaves are dipped in batter and fried. Like the other members of the genus Plectranthus (including Swedish ivy, P. australis), this is a low perennial shrub that requires full sun and good, fertile garden loam with constant moisture. Under optimum conditions in the garden, Cuban oregano may reach 39 inches (1 m) tall, but plants in pots rarely reach half that height. Winter temperatures should not be below 40°F (4.4°C).
Two cultivars are known: ‘Variegata’ (of unknown origin and a name which is technically incorrect because it is in Latin and published after 1 January 1959) with edges in white, and ‘Well Sweep Wedgewood’ with a creamy center. ‘Well Sweep Wedgewood’ tends to grow laterally and is best displayed in a hanging basket.
The essential oil of Cuban oregano has been found to be insecticidal.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of Cuban oregano, depending upon the geographical source, consists of 0 to 88 percent thymol, 0 to 80 percent carvacrol, and 0 to 21 percent beta-phellandrene, trace to 21 percent beta-caryophyllene, 0 to 20 percent gamma-terpinene, 0 to 17 percent alpha-terpinene, and 0 to 17 percent p-cymene.
P. amboinicus (Lour.) Spreng., Syst. veg. 2. 690. 1825 (Coleus amboinicus Lour., C. aromaticus Benth.).
Native country: Cuban oregano is probably native to India (or possibly Africa) but is widely distributed throughout the tropics, from Africa, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines to the Virgin Islands, Cuba, and Mexico.
General habit: This is a more or less succulent herb, 0.3 to 1 m high. Stems and branches are almost circular in cross-section, densely hairy when young, becoming smooth in age.
Leaves: Leaves are thick, fleshy, broadly egg-shaped, almost round, or kidney-shaped, 5 to 7 cm long, 4 to 6 cm wide, blunt or rounded at apex, rounded or squared at the base, often tapering to the base, sparsely hairy above and with moderately coarse and stiff hairs on the nerves beneath; margin coarsely round-toothed.
Plectranthus amboinicus
Flowers: Flowers are in dense, ten- to more than twenty-flowered clusters, the corolla lavender-blue.
patchouli
Family: Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Growth form: herbaceous perennials about 1.5 to 3 feet (0.5 to 1 m) tall
Hardiness: very sensitive to frost
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: well-drained garden loam, pH 4.3 to 6.3, average 5.3
Propagation: cuttings when in active growth in spring or summer; seeds possible but not routine
Culinary use: none
Craft use: scenting, moth repellent
Landscape use: large pots, front of border
French: patchouli
German: Patschouli
Dutch: patchouli
Italian: patchouli
Spanish: pacholí
It is thanks to Napoleon Bonaparte (1769– 1821), the Corsican-born military leader and Emperor of France, that patchouli found its way to Europe and now enriches our herb gardens with its sweet, spicy, balsamic aroma. It all happened in a roundabout way.
After exploring the Egyptian marketplaces during his North African campaign (1798– 1799), Napoleon brought back to Paris several cashmere shawls. The fabric of these shawls, woven from the under-fleece of the Kashmir or down goat, was so supple and fine that the Moguls called them “ring shawls” because they could be drawn through a fingerring. The dark-colored shawls were also marked by an intricate pattern of tiny floral components arranged in a large comma shape culminating in a tilted finial. In addition, the shawls were scented of patchouli to protect them from moths, both during the lengthy time of weaving (up to eighteen months) and during transport. The source of the mysterious and luscious scent was a closely held secret.
Soon European manufacturers at Paisley, Scotland, and Reims, France, began to duplicate the shawl patterns with coarser wools, but the perfumed shawls from India always demanded a higher price. When patchouli oil was imported into France for scenting the shawls—as early as 1826—sales soared.
In 1837, Blanco first described true patchouli as Mentha cablin in his Flora de Filipinas, finally revealing the source of the mysterious aroma. Patchouli may be one of the first aromas used as a marketing tool; some hundred years later, American marketing consultants “discovered” the value of scent for selling everything from toilet paper to cars. So what else is new?
Mystery continues to surround patchouli because the fragrance is not the property of a single species or cultivar. Many of the seventy-one Pogostemon species of the Indomalaysian region have leaves scented with a rich, sweet-herbaceous, aromatic-spicy, and woody-balsamic aroma. Two species, P. cablin and P. heyneanus, are harvested and often mixed to produce an oil that contains 14 to 46 percent patchoulol (patch ouli alcohol), but the chief aromatic component appears to be norpatchoulenol, which is only about 0.3 to 6 percent of the oil. In addition, at least three unnamed cultivars of P. cablin are raised commercially. Thus far, research has usually centered upon the commercial product rather than individual species.
While both P. cablin and P. heyneanus are available in cultivation, an inferior species is sometimes pawned off as their scented sibling in the United States. This large-leaved, slightly hairy and essentially scentless species is P. benghalensis (N. L. Burm.) Kuntze (P. plectranthoides Desf.). Some gardeners are familiar only with this species and thus have a very poor impression of patchouli.
In addition, gardeners who come to patchouli, the plant, after becoming familiar with patchouli, the oil, are sometimes baffled because the essential oil is so overpowering and the leaf scent so subtle. The strength of patchouli oil’s odor is so strong that, when mixed volume for volume with any other oil, patchouli always predominates. The intensity of commercial patchouli oil is developed after controlled fermentation of the dried leaves, thereby releasing more odor. Chemists note that many scented components are actively metabolized while bound to a sugar, but in this form they are not volatile and are hence scentless; fermentation breaks the sugar bond and releases the “free” chemicals to eventually evaporate and be detected as scent.
Patchouli is also unique in the mint family because the essential oil is synthesized in both internal and external glands; most other members of the Lamiaceae secrete most of their essential oil beneath a layer of cutin (plant wax) from either three-celled or ten-celled epidermal glands. Along with its dominance, the rich, distinctive scent of patchouli has staying power; it will remain perceptible for weeks or months on unwashed clothing and is thus described as having good “tenacity.” Thus patchouli is sometimes described as having “fixative” qualities.
Patchouli is a loose-growing, somewhat weedy, upright tender perennial. The generic name for patchouli, Pogostemon, refers to the bearded filaments of the four erect stamens, a distinguishing characteristic of the genus. The common name is derived from paccilai, meaning “green leaf” in the Tamil language of southern India.
Patchouli oil blends well with labdanum, vetiver, sandalwood, cedarwood, oakmoss, rose geranium, clove, lavender, rose, bergamot, clary sage, and pine needle. Patchouli forms an integral part of Oriental perfumes, woody bases, fougères, chypres, and powdery perfumes. Combined with geranium, the violet-scented ionones and orris extracts, anise, clove, and so on, it formed the basis of the tiny, black, paper-like squares of Sen-Sen, a breath sweetener that was particularly popular during Prohibition. In India, ink was once scented of camphor and patchouli, a custom that deserves resurrection. Patch ouli oil has also been used in baked goods, beverages, candies, gelatins, puddings, chewing gum, and low-tar cigarettes; it is reputed to have insecticidal and antimicrobial activities. The essential oil is considered GRAS at 2 to 220 ppm.
All Pogostemon species are extremely sensitive to temperature and grow rapidly in warm weather. At temperatures much below 70°F (21°C) growth slows and, as temperatures drop further, the plants go dormant and lose some leaves; severe, permanent damage may be caused if temperatures dip to 35°F (2°C), and they will certainly not with stand hard freezes. This temperature sensitivity demands that home gardeners grow patchouli as a warm-weather annual or cultivate it in containers that can be brought into a house or greenhouse during winter. Because of its rapid growth rate, a plant in a 2.5-inch pot purchased in spring will step up to a 6- to 12-inch pot easily with in a single season. A soilless growing medium provides good stability and should be fertilized every two weeks during rapid growth periods. Frequent pinching or small harvests produce more compact growth and increase branching.
Patchouli is a plant for a shady or partly shady location; it will show heat stress in direct, hot sun. Indonesia provides most of the patchouli oil imported into the United States.
true patchouli
True patchouli is cultivated in Indonesia, Malaysia, China, and Brazil for its oil, but Indonesia accounts for over 80 percent of the total annual oil production. Patchouli oil derived primarily from P. cablin is commercially marketed as “Singapore patchouli oil.” The specific name is derived from the native Tagalog (Philippine) name kablin. The herb is called dilem wangi, the “cultivated patchouli,” in Indonesia because it rarely flowers there or in Malaya and is propagated from cuttings.
At least three unnamed cultivars of true patchouli are commercially raised. The apocryphal story has circulated, sometimes reprinted in rather reputable manuals, that this species never flowers. Yet it flowers prolifically, particularly in the fall, in our greenhouses. This is not an unusual phenomenon in the Lamiaceae because many high-latitude mints, when taken to areas near the equator, do not flower under the almost equal lengths of day and night.
For commercial production, cuttings are raised in a nursery. From there they are placed in well-tilled and well-drained soil 2 feet (60 cm) apart in rows 3 feet (1 m) apart. Because patchouli does best in part shade, it is commonly interplanted with coconut palms in Indomalaysia. Moisture must be constant, and irrigation is necessary in dry climates.
The first cutting takes place after five to nine months of growth, with further harvests every three to six months for two to three years. Only the top 10 to 24 inches (25 to 60 cm) are harvested, so that four to six juvenile sprouting buds remain at the basal region to provide rapid regeneration. Next, the leaves are dried in the shade and turned frequently to prevent fungal growth, for three to six days. Fresh yields vary from 3,569 to 7,138 pounds per acre (4,000 to 8,000 kg/ha); up to 80 to 85 percent of that weight is lost on drying. Distillation may vary from six to twenty-four hours, depending upon the lot, with oil yields of about 2 percent of the weight of the dried leaves.
Pogostemon cablin
In order to get the highest yield of the essential oil by steam distillation, the leaves are either given a controlled, light fermentation, scalded with superheated steam, or stacked or baled, thus “curing” them by modest and interrupted fermentation. The latter method produces the best oil. Patchouli oil is a dark orange or brownish orange, viscous liquid; this native oil is often redistilled.
Patchouli is said to deplete the soil rapidly and is thus commonly grown for a single season with out additional nitrogen fertilizer; the plots are later rotated with coffee or rubber crops, or nitrogen fertilizers are applied at the rate of 45 pounds per acre (50 kg/ha) after each harvest.
For home gardeners, this equals a rate of about 2 pounds 5-10-5 fertilizer per 100 square feet.
Patchouli is very susceptible to root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita, and care must be taken to prevent its infestation. Leaf blight, caused by a Cercospora species, is evidenced by brown spots near the margins and can be controlled by fungicides.
Important chemistry: In one of the few projects to analyze the essential oil of authentic P. cablin from Vietnam rather than a commercial oil, Dung et al. found 38 percent patchouli alcohol and 15 percent alpha-bulnesene. Sugimura et al. also defined variations of essential oils from three unnamed cultivars of P. cablin and found 19 to 29 percent patchouli alcohol, 7 to 12 percent alpha-patchoulene plus delta-guaiene, and 5 to 17 percent alpha-guaiene plus beta-caryophyllene. Indonesian patchouli oil has 32 percent patchouli alcohol, 17 percent delta-guaiene, and 16 percent alpha-guaiene.
false patchouli
This herb is called “false” because it is a substitute for the more desirable true patchouli, P. cablin. The specific name is derived from Benjamin Heyne (1770–1819), the superintendent of the Bangalore Gardens in India. In Indonesia, the herb is called dilem kembang, the “flowering patchouli.” Cultivation and uses are similar to true patchouli, and both are commonly mixed on the market. The commercial oil derived primarily from this species is called “Java” or “Sumatra patchouli oil.”
Key:
1. Habit proportionally slender, segments of the inflorescences evenly spaced, with internodes always visible, less than 1 cm, short appressed-hairy, calyx 3 to 3.5 mm (in fruit 3.5 to 4 mm) long.......................................................................................................... P. heyneanus
1a. Habit more robust, axis not slender, segments of inflorescences in an almost continuous thick spike 1 to 2 cm wide, densely hairy, calyx 4 to 6 mm (in fruit 5.5 to 6 mm) long........................ P. cablin
P. cablin (Blanco) Benth in DC., Prodr. 12:146. 1848 (P. petchouly Pellet.).
Native country: True patchouli is native to clearings and settled areas in Sri Lanka and continental southeastern Asia but cultivated elsewhere and often escaped.
General habit: True patchouli is an erect branched herb, 0.5 to 1 m high. Stems and branches are coated with a dense, wool-like covering of matted, tangled hairs of medium length.
Leaves: Leaves are thin- or thick-membranaceous, narrowly egg-shaped or egg-shaped, 5 to 14 × 3.5 to 10 cm, with short appressed hairs, tapering to the apex, base rounded-wedge-shaped, base always smooth-edged, margin with rounded teeth or doubly toothed.
Flowers: Flowers are white, lavender-blue, or violet, 6 to 7 mm long.
P. heyneanus Benth in Wall., Pl. asiat. rar. 2:16. 1830–1831 (P. patchouli J. D. Hook.).
Native country: False patchouli is native to thickets, old clearings, and stream banks in Sri Lanka and continental southeastern Asia but cultivated elsewhere and often escaped.
General habit: False patchouli is an erect branched herb, 0.5 to 1.5 m high. Stems and branches are slender, sparsely hairy.
Leaves: Leaves are thin-membranaceous, egg-shaped to broadly egg-shaped, 5 to 8 × 3.5 to 5.5 cm, tapering to the apex, base broadly wedge-shaped, base smooth-edged, margin with rounded teeth or doubly toothed.
Flowers: Flowers are white, or the upper lip pale violet, 4.5 to 5 mm long.
Mexican oregano
Family: Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Growth form: subshrub to 39 inches (1 m)
Hardiness: root hardy to Zone 8
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet; with stands drought
Soil: well-drained garden loam
Propagation: cuttings in spring and summer
Culinary use: limited (not GRAS)
Craft use: none
Landscape use: container plant, middle of border
Spanish: orégano
Poliomintha bustamanta
The name of this genus of seven species is probably derived from the Spanish for pennyroyal plus the Greek for mint. The specific epithet refers to Bustamante in Nuevo León in Mexico. As the Spanish name, orégano, implies, this is used in the same manner as Greek oregano (Origanum vulgare subsp. hirtum) in Mexico. This plant was first used in Texas in the early 1970s as a landscape plant by Lynn Lowry; he acquired the plants from the Sierra Picachos, which are south of Laredo about one hour on the Monterrey Highway. He observed men coming out of the mountains with bundles of cut branches, tied on mules, to be sold at the local markets.
Mexican oregano has been identified in previous articles as P. longiflora A. Gray, but the publication of P. bustamanta in 1993 by B. L. Turner alerted Kim Kuebel of Texas that the cultivated material was incorrectly identified. However, because the cultivated plants combine the characteristics of both P. longiflora and P. glabrescens A. Gray and because they do not fit P. bustamanta exactly, we wonder whether a hybrid complex may be involved here; we also wonder whether other local, endemic species (such as P. dendritica Turner and P. maderensis Henrickson) may also be hybrids.
Mexican oregano is a subshrub occasionally hardy to short freezes down to -5°F (-20.6°C) in well-drained soil and full sun. The glossy, green leaves on a shrub to almost 39 inches (1 m) are attractive in themselves, but the long lavender flowers to about 1 inch (30 cm) long, produced almost all summer, really make this desirable in the herb garden or mixed herbaceous border.
While widely consumed in Mexico and Texas, Mexican oregano has no GRAS status.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of Poliomintha bustamanta consists of 41 to 45 percent carvacrol, 14 percent carvacryl methyl ether, and 11 percent gamma-terpinene.
P. bustamanta Turner, Phytologia. 74:164. 1993.
Native country: P. bustamanta is native to Nuevo León, Mexico.
General habit: This is a subshrub 1 m high.
Leaves: Leaves are well spaced; spreading or nodding; oval to broadly or narrowly elliptical; 16 to 19 mm long, 4 to 5 mm wide; with smooth edges, tapering to the base and shortly stalked; the stalk 2 mm long; blunt at apex; young leaves hairy, almost smooth upon maturity.
Flowers: Flowers are solitary in the axils of the upper leaves, rarely two-flowered in the axils, corolla lavender.
papaloquelite
Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Growth form: annual to 6 feet (1.8 m)
Hardiness: very sensitive to frost
Water: moist but not wet
Soil: well-drained garden loam
Propagation: seeds in spring
Culinary use: cilantro-like but limited (not GRAS)
Craft use: none
Landscape use: container plant (in southern Texas and Mexico), rear of the vegetable/herb garden
Papaloquelite is used in Mexico and Texas for flavoring foods. Branches are kept in glasses of water on the tables of the cafes, and the leaves are torn up fresh on beans or eaten with tortillas and garlic. The leaves impart a unique cilantro–green pepper–cucumber flavor. In South America the leaves of the normal subspecies (subsp. ruderale) are used in foods under the name quinquiña (Bolivia) or cravo de urubu (“black vulture’s marigold,” Brazil). Each marigold-like plant may grow to 6 feet (1.8 m) high and provide plenty of foliage, but ray-less flowers are rarely produced in the northern United States before frost. If you grow this outside of southern Texas and Mexico, grow it in pots so that you gather the dandelion-like fruits with their tiny, bristly parachutes.
Porophyllum ruderale subsp. macrocephalum
The generic name means “pored-leaf” and refers to the translucent oil glands scattered on the margin and surface of the blue-green leaves; a ruderal plant grows in waste places. Macro-cephalum means “large-headed.” The normal sub species has lance-shaped leaves, while subsp. macrocephalum has egg-shaped leaves. The genus Porophyllum includes about twenty-eight species of the warm Americas. Most other species of this genus are described by botanists as “smelly.”
The cultivated material is not P. coloratum (Humb., Bonpl. & Kunth.) DC., as claimed in a 2001 article in Herb Companion; P. coloratum has linear leaves, unlike the lance-shaped leaves of P. ruderale. Some ethnic markets in the United States will sometimes offer another species of similar odor, P. tagetoides (Humb., Bonpl. & Kunth.) DC.; this species has linear leaves but has not entered general cultivation in the United States.
Despite its consumption in southern Texas and Latin America, P. ruderale has no GRAS status.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of the type, P. ruderale subsp. ruderale, from
Brazil is characterized by 0 to 75 percent limonene, 0 to 63 percent beta-phellandrene, and 0 to 22 percent (E,E)-dodecadienal, providing a lemony cilantro-like odor. Plants from Bolivia have 64 percent sabinene and 10 percent terpinen-4-ol, providing a piney odor.
P. ruderale (Jacq.) Cass. subsp. macro-cephalum (DC.) R. R. Johnson, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 48:233. 1969.
Native country: Papaloquelite is native from Texas to South America.
General habit: This an erect annual, smooth and somewhat covered with a bluish waxy covering. Stems are branching above, 15 cm to 1.8 m high, green to purplish, circular in cross-section, marked with fine longitudinal lines.
Leaves: Leaves are borne opposite or singly; blades are 1 to 3.5 cm long and 2.5 cm wide, thin, broadly egg-shaped to narrowed at the base; rarely lance-shaped or lance-shaped with narrow base, wavy-margined with one gland in each depression and one at each tip, surfaces of the blades with or without glands, tip rounded, base usually rounded or sometimes gradually narrowing. Leaf stalks are 0.5 to 2 cm long.
Flowers: Heads are solitary at the ends of branches; stalks erect, club-shaped, 1.5 to 6 cm long, bracts five, green, purple-tinged, lance-shaped with two rows of lance-shaped glands. Flowers are thirty or more per head, corolla purple to olive-green.
mountain mint
Family: Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Growth form: herbaceous perennials to 59 inches (150 cm)
Hardiness: many hardy to Zone 5
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not wet; many can withstand drought
Soil: well-drained garden loam
Propagation: seeds or divisions of clumps in spring
Culinary use: limited (not GRAS)
Craft use: dried flowers, wreaths, tussy-mussies, sachets
Landscape use: wildflower and meadow gardens, herbaceous borders (with caution)
This genus, usually called mountain mint, was derived from the Greek pyknos, “dense,” and anthos, “flower,” alluding to the densely packed flower clusters. All eighteen species of North America are good herbaceous perennials with scents varying from eucalyptus to mint to lemon; they are good plants for foraging bees and produce distinctively scented honey. The foliage in many species is hairy, which produces a silvery cast that often intensifies upon drying; flower stems, picked at their peak (about mid-flowering) are used in dried arrangements. Most species propagate easily from seeds (actually tiny nuts, or nutlets), but abundant stolons and/or rhizomes are also produced and can be divided. Some may even become weeds, and if you grow many of the species, new hybrids may result.
These native American plants are underused in the herbaceous border, potpourri, flea pillows, tussy-mussies, dried flower arrangements, and sachets. None have GRAS status, and while no poisonous constituents have been identified in the literature, you’re on your own with culinary applications.
gray mountain mint
The gray mountain mint is scented of pennyroyal and peppermint. The fat spear-shaped leaves increase in hairiness at the apex of the 59-inch (150 cm) stems and appear almost white; they’re coated with soft velvety hairs. The flowers are white to pale lilac. The herb is excellent for dried arrangements.
Important chemistry: The oil of gray mountain mint has 31 to 54 percent pulegone and 28 to 53 percent menthone.
hairy mountain mint
The hairy mountain mint is intensely scented of peppermint and pennyroyal. The stems reach to 59 inches (150 cm) high with dark green, spear-shaped leaves. The heads of white to pale lilac flowers of hairy mountain mint have been touted as an excellent for bees, which then produce a mint-scented honey. The growth habit of this herb is floppy and rather weedy, and the seed heads shatter so readily that seedlings appear in every nook and cranny. We recommend this herb enthusiastically for meadow-gardening; in other situations, its spreading habit may cause problems.
Important chemistry: The oil of hairy mountain mint has 3 to 44 percent menthone, 27 to 84 percent pulegone, and trace to 16 percent neomenthol.
Pycnanthemum pilosum
Virginia mountain mint
Also called wild basil, Virginia mountain mint is very variable in morphology and chemistry. Most individuals are scented of pennyroyal and peppermint, but some smell distinctly of lemon meringue pie and others smell medicinal. The narrow, spear-shaped leaves are usually pale green and smooth; heads of white to pale lilac flowers appear at the apex of 39-inch (1 m) stems. This species too is excellent in dried flower arrangements.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of Virginia mountain mint has 0 to 78 percent isomenthone, 2 to 66 percent pulegone, trace t o 51 percent limonene, and trace to 23 percent germacrene D.
Key:
1. Median leaf stalks (about halfway up the stem) 3 to 12 mm long; calyces bearing elongate, jointed bristles 1 to 3 mm long...................................................................... P. incanum
1a. Median leaf stalks rarely over 3 mm long; calyces never tipped with jointed bristles.................... 2
2. Stems hairy on the angles only; leaves smooth or rarely slightly hairy.................. P. virginianum
2a. Stems hairy on all sides; leaves hairy....................................................... P. pilosum
P. incanum (L.) Michx., Fl. bor.-amer. 2:7. 1803.
Native country: Gray mountain mint is native to dry woods and thickets from Vermont, south to North Carolina and west to Tennessee and Kentucky.
General habit: Gray mountain mint is a perennial herb to 150 cm, commonly about 80 cm, the stems loosely branched in the upper part, densely hairy with both short curled hairs and a few longer spreading hairs.
Leaves: Leaves are egg-spear-shaped, less often spear-shaped, somewhat rounded at the base, lighter beneath, toothed, the median 4.5 to 11 × 1.5 to 5.5 cm.
Flowers: The tightly packed terminal flowers are white to pale lilac, purple-spotted.
P. pilosum Nutt., Gen. N. Amer. pl. 2:33. 1818.
Native country: Hairy mountain mint is native to dry to moist woods, thickets, and clearings from Michigan to Illinois, south to North Carolina, and west to Iowa.
General habit: Hairy mountain mint is a perennial herb to 150 cm, commonly 90 to 100 cm, the stems rather densely coated with spreading hairs, branching freely in the inflorescence.
Leaves: Leaves are spear-shaped, 3.5 to 7 × 0.8 to 2 cm, smooth-edged or shallowly toothed, the upper surface of the lower leaves essentially smooth, those of the upper sparingly hairy, the lower surfaces of all coated with long, soft, straight hairs.
Flowers: The tightly packed terminal flowers are white to pale lilac, purple-spotted.
P. virginianum (L.) Th. Durand & B. D. Jacks. ex B. L. Robinson & Fernald, Gray’s manual, ed. 7, 707. 1908.
Native country: Virginia mountain mint is native to gravelly shores, meadows, dry to wet thickets, and so on from Ontario to North Carolina, west to Oklahoma and Minnesota.
General habit: Virginia mountain mint is an herbaceous perennial herb to 1 m or more tall, commonly about 70 cm, bearing short leafy lateral branches in the upper parts.
Leaves: Leaves are spear-shaped or narrow with the sides parallel to spear-shaped, smooth, stalkless, smooth-edged or rarely shallowly toothed, the median 35 to 65 × 6 to 11 mm.
Flowers: The tightly packed terminal flowers are white to pale lilac, purple-spotted.
Sicilian sumac
Family: Anacardiaceae
Growth form: shrubby tree to about 10 feet (3 m)
Hardiness: potentially hardy to Zone 8
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not wet
Soil: well-drained garden loam; can withstand drought
Propagation: seeds
Culinary use: limited (not GRAS)
Craft use: none
Landscape use: rear of shrub border; accent
French: sumac des corroyeurs, corroyére
German: Färberbaum, Gerber-Sumach, Sumach, Sizilianische Sumach
Dutch: siliciaanse sumak
Italian: sommacco di Sicilia
Spanish: zumaque de tenerías
Portuguese: sumagra
Swedish: sumack
Russian: sumakh dubil’nyy
Arabic: sammak, timtima
The genus Rhus includes about 200 temperate and subtropical species, usually trees, shrubs, or vines with clinging roots and simple or compound leaves and tiny, olive-like fruits. Many species, such as poison ivy, sometimes relegated to the genus Toxicodendron, produce contact dermatitis. Other species, such as R. verniciflua Stokes, the Chinese or Japanese lacquer tree, produce lacquers. Rhus was an ancient Greek name, while coriaria is derived from the Latin corium, “leather,” perhaps alluding to the use of sumac leaves in tanning leather.
Sicilian sumac has bright red fruits about 1/8 inch (2 to 4 mm) in diameter, similar to the North American R. glabra L., smooth sumac. While not yet in cultivation in North America, sumac trees are grown commercially in Sicily and southern Italy for the coating around the seeds; the taste is sour but not astringent, rather a rounded fruity sourness, as in sour apples. Sumac is used in Middle Eastern cooking for such dishes as samak el harrah, a fish stew of Lebanon and Syria. Sumac fruits, blended with thyme and oregano, are an integral part of the Arabic spice za’tar. The Iranians and Georgians season kebobs with sumac. The Lebanese extract the juice of the fruit as an alternative to lemon juice for salads; to extract the juice, the fruits are first soaked in water for fifteen to twenty minutes and then squeezed out thoroughly. Unfortunately, the fruits of sumac are not listed as GRAS.
Rhus coriaria
The leaves of sumac are used for tanning Cordoba and Morocco leather, earning this plant the alternate name of tanner’s sumac. The dried leaves have been used by the Turks to adulterate their oregano, especially after shortages from the radioactive fallout from Chernobyl, but the leaves may be carcinogenic.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of fruits of Turkish R. coraria is characterized by 3 to 42 percent (E)-2-decenal, 2 to 13 percent nonanal, and trace to 9 percent limonene, providing a lemony-cucumber-like odor. The essential oil of the leaves is characterized by trace to 17 percent beta-caryophyllene and 3 to 24 percent patchoulane, providing a somewhat resinous odor.
R. coriaria L., Sp. pl. 265. 1753.
Native country: Sicilian sumac is native to densely wooded uplands from southern Europe to western Asia.
General habit: Sicilian sumac is a shrub or small tree about 3 m high.
Leaves: Leaves are divided into seven to twenty-one leaflets arranged as a feather, each leaflet 1 to 5 cm long, egg-shaped to widest at the center, tip sharp or blunt, coarsely toothed, sometimes with one or two small lobes at the base, hairy beneath, nearly smooth above.
Flowers: Flowers are greenish and arranged in a dense compound inflorescence with the younger flowers at the apex.
Fruits/seeds: Fruits are red to brownish purple and hairy, 2 to 4 mm in diameter.
rose
Family: Rosaceae
Growth form: shrubs 2 to 30 feet (61 cm to 9 m)
Hardiness: many routinely hardy to Zone 6
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: well-drained garden loam
Propagation: cuttings or grafts
Culinary use: salads, desserts
Craft use: potpourri, sachets, beads
Landscape use: shrubbery or rear of herb border
German: Rose
Dutch: roos
Italian: rosa
Spanish: rosa, gavanzo, escaramujo
Portuguese: roseira
Swedish: ros
Russian: rosa
Chinese: ch’iang-wei, mei-kuei
Japanese: bara
Arabic: ward(a)
Gertrude Stein’s “A rose is a rose is a rose” strikes us as pitifully naive when you consider that the genus Rosa includes about 100 species of the temperate regions to tropical mountains and thousands of different named cultivars. The genus Rosa derives its name from the Latin rosa, in turn from the Greek rhodon, which, in turn, was derived the original Indo-European root-word, ward, still retained in the Arabic.
As implied from such an ancient Indo-European origin of the name, roses have been cultivated since ancient times; we find, for example, the depiction of what may be R. pulverulenta M. Bieb. in the House of Frescoes at Knossos dated to around 1450 B.C.E. Roses have enthralled humans for their beauty of form and scent down through the ages, and today we use rose petals for perfumes, cosmetics, and even salads, while the fruits, known as hips, are high in vitamin C with a tomato-like taste. Roses have long symbolized romance, and we find special pleasure and meaning in being able to grow, touch, and inhale the fragrance of the same rose that grandmother grew in West Virginia or Napoleon’s Josephine grew at Malmaison.
The choice of a rose cultivar for its beauty and usefulness is an individual choice, but the nursery’s methods of producing roses should be an important consideration as well. Roses sold today in North America and Europe are usually budded upon one of three different rootstocks, R. canina, R. multiflora Thunb., or ‘Dr. Huey’, but some companies sell plants grown on their own roots. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods. Generally, most heritage roses perform better with their own roots, but modern hybrids such as teas and floribundas, whose own roots tend to be weak, do better grafted to a more vigorous rootstock.
Some own-root roses often produce shoots from their roots, especially if they have R. gallica ancestry; these suckers can be as troublesome as spreading mints and as difficult to manage. ‘Dr. Huey’ rootstock is fine for the sandy, alkaline soils of California and Texas, but for the acid soils of the northeastern United States, either R. canina or R. multiflora is preferred. For Florida and other subtropical areas, R. ×fortuniana Lindl. is a must as a rootstock because of the combination of heat and nematodes. The choice of the rootstock is almost as important as the grafted scion, and if the commercial company which sells the rose you desire does not give that information in their catalog, write or call them.
Also look for grading of the budded roses and buy only grade 1 to 1½ these are the top grades awarded to plants with more canes and higher quality. An indication of a really good company is authentication that their budwood and rootstock have been indexed as virus-free. Expect, even with the best of companies, some misidentification, and if the company does not admit fault or refer you to a source for authentication, you may wish to look for another source.
Most roses do best on deep, fertile, moist but well-drained soils with a pH of 5.5 to 6.5; a position that provides full sun and good air circulation helps reduce disease and insects. The choice of species or cultivar (as well as your climate) will dictate spacing. If rooting of the scion is desired, plant the bud union about 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) below the soil level; otherwise, be sure that the bud union sets above the soil level. Some gardeners prefer fall-planting to give the roots extra time to establish themselves, but we have found that in Zone 7 and north, some winters will be so cold that the fall-planted roses will not survive.
Do not fertilize newly planted roses; wait four to six weeks for the plants to become established. Authorities do not agree on the type of fertilizer or the rate, only that roses are heavy feeders. We recommend yearly feedings of about a cupful of 5-10-5 fertilizer per established rose bush sprinkled in a circle around the base, supplemented with monthly feedings of fish emulsion, manure tea, or other organic sources of nutrients for maximum growth. Robust roses, such as ‘Gardenia’, which puts out 40-foot canes even on poor soil, require additional fertilizer.
Do not expect typical blossoms of a species or cultivar until the second year after planting. The blooms of the first year are smaller and sparser than are typical.
Many of the heritage roses are easily propagated by cuttings. Those that don’t root easily from cuttings, such as the roses with heavy R. gallica ancestry, produce suckers, which are easily transplanted. Many people swear on pencil-sized green cuttings taken in the fall, but we have had good success with “heel” cuttings of blooming stalks. Cuttings taken at the time of flowering also guarantee proper labeling. The cleanliness, temperature, and humidity of the rooting chamber are of primary importance; rooting media that suffers from fungi contamination, high temperatures, or low humidity guarantees failure.
To prepare a spring rose cutting, choose a healthy blooming side shoot with at least three good terminal leaves. Rip the side branch off in a quick downward movement, removing some of the tissue of the main stem. Dip the cutting in rooting hormone and treat as advised in the propagation chapter.
We have found that a well-drained rooting medium of 1 part perlite to 1 part Turface® (clay frit) with clean mason jars and semi-shade work very well for small batches of rose cuttings; for larger volumes of roses, you may want to experiment with mist systems. For budding and other methods of propagation of roses, please see the books and articles cited in the selected references.
Roses have long symbolized romance, and we find
special pleasure and meaning in being able to grow,
touch, and inhale the fragrance of the same rose that
grandmother grew in West Virginia or Napoleon’s
Josephine grew at Malmaison.
The worst rose pests are thrips, leafhoppers, rose slugs, and Japanese beetles. The first three can be controlled by spraying a dormant oil in early spring when you have twenty-four hours of above-freezing temperatures but before the buds have begun to burst. Japanese beetles can be controlled by strains of Bacillus thuringiensis applied to the adjacent lawns. If you use the Japanese beetle traps that have sex attractants and/or rose oil, be sure to place the trap far away from the roses and empty the traps often; placing the traps near the roses will guarantee that your roses are eaten.
Black spot and mildew are the most common diseases, and various claims of success have been made for sprays of baking soda (3 tablespoons per gallon of water) applied with an insecticidal soap (5 tablespoons per gallon water) or summer horticultural oil. Baking soda sprays must be reapplied after each heavy rain. Avoid overhead watering.
Picking rose petals is extremely labor-intensive. Pickers in New Zealand do not exceed 13.2 pounds per hour (6 kg/hr), but the average is 6.6 pounds per hour (3 kg/hr). At 0.09 to 0.18 ounce per flower (2.5 to 5.0 g/flower), this represents 91 to 181 flowers per pound (200 to 400 flowers/kg). A report from New Zealand indicates that R. damascena ‘Trigintipetala’ produced 12.3 pounds (5.6 kg) of flowers per plant during the third flowering season, for a total flower yield of 4.10 tons per acre (9.2 t/ha) at a density of 668 plants per acre (1650 plants/ha).
Either yields in New Zealand are exceptional, their plants are misidentified, or the decimal has been moved because in Delaware we only found 0.57 pounds (0.26 kg) of flowers per plant for authentic ‘Trigintipetala’ and 0.68 pounds (0.31 kg) of flowers per plant for ‘Prof. Émile Perrot’. Typically, after picking, the rose petals are spread over cool concrete floors in the shade, where the rose petals may continue to produce rose scent, until they can be distilled.
The distillation of rose petals is unique in a number of aspects. The essential oil of most herbs can be steam-distilled by passing steam over the leaves, but rose petals “glop together” under steam to form an impenetrable mass. Hence, the best method to distill the essential oil from rose petals is water distillation; the rose petals are placed in a distillation unit, often a copper still, often with salty water, and then boiled. The heating drives off both the steam and the volatile components that are condensed by a cold-water condenser.
The resulting product in most other plants is an oil, but in the case of rose petals, many plant waxes (paraffins) are also distilled, resulting in a waxy, oily product called an “attar” or “otto” (derived from the Arabic ‘itr, meaning “perfume” or “essence”). The water contains many water-soluble components, particularly beta-phenylethanol, and this rose water is marketed for use in cosmetics or food. Rose petals may also be extracted with petroleum ether, producing a yellow-colored, waxy concrète. Extraction of the odoriferous principles into ethyl alcohol, leaving behind the yellow pigments and waxes, produces an absolute from concrète.
The typical rose scent is due to a simple water-soluble alcohol, beta-phenylethanol, and three monoterpenic oil-soluble alcohols, geraniol, nerol, and citronellol. The acetate esters of these alcohols are also rose-scented but of a slightly different fragrance. The clove-scented eugenol and methyl eugenol provide spiciness, while ionones give hints of violets. The relative concentrations of these chemicals determine the final odor. The attar may also be characterized by various waxes, such as nonadecane, eicosane, and heneicosane, but these are essentially odorless.
All the following old roses, unfortunately, flower only once, in spring. The fruit of some species, such as R. canina and R. rugosa, are large and red. These hips, as the fruit is called, softened by the first heavy frost, have a tomato-like taste and are rich in vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and especially good prepared as conserves and jams with cream cheese for tea cakes. Under ideal conditions, rose hips may have 0.5 percent vitamin C. However, vitamin workers have reported asthma-like symptoms induced by inhalation of powdered rose hips.
In our discussion we have included seven basic rose species and ancient hybrids which have utility in the herb garden. Many cultivars, particularly those designated as “heritage” roses, could also be recommended, but remain beyond the scope of this book.
The literature on roses is voluminous: for a survey of this literature, we recommend Keith L. Stock’s Rose Books. Gerd Krüssmann’s encyclopedic The Complete Book of Roses provides a general history and guide through the complex evolution of roses. For descriptions and dates of cultivars, Thomas Cairn’s Modern Roses XI is a good introduction. For color pictures of the species and heritage roses, we recommend, in particular, Peter Beales’s Classic Roses, Trevor Griffiths’s The Book of Old Roses and The Book of Classic Old Roses, and Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix’s Roses. Look for books on rose culture in your region, such as Liz Druitt and G. Michael Shoup’s Landscaping with Antique Roses, which is great for the Deep South.
white rose
The white rose is unknown outside of cultivation and has an unknown pedigree. The white rose has clean, white petals with bluish green foliage and a wonderful old-rose scent; it is typified by a Linnaean specimen with nine petals. This is var. alba, sometimes incorrectly designated as ‘Semi-Plena’; it may bear up to twelve petals. Rosa alba var. alba has been called the “York” rose because it was chosen by Edward IV (reigned 1461–1470) as a symbol of the House of York. Another cultivar is ‘Suaveolens’, the white rose of perfumers since before 1899, with twelve to sixteen petals. ‘Suaveolens’ is typically used as a windbreak for the damask rose fields in Bulgaria, and the petals are also harvested for the commercial attar. ‘Maxima’, with forty-four to fifty-one petals, was the rose of the Jacobites, chosen by the supporters of the House of Stuart after James II lost his throne in 1688. ‘Maxima’ predates 1400 and was often pictured in fifteenth-century paintings.
Important chemistry: The attars of ‘Suave-olens’ and ‘Maxima’ are very similar, with 32 to 34 percent geraniol and 18 percent nerol.
dog rose
The dog rose or dog hip is typically used as a rootstock for grafting hybrids, particularly by nurseries in England, and it is frequently naturalized in North America. This is a large shrub to 8 feet (2.4 m). The flowers are single and pink; the hips (fruits) are orange-red, large, tasty, and high in vitamin C. The seeds yield an oil rich in trans-retanoic acid and are potentially useful for cosmetics.
cabbage rose
French: rose de Mai, rose pâle, rose centfeuilles, rose de Provins
German: Zentifolien-Rose, Centifolien-Rose, Provence Rose
Dutch: centifolia roos, Provence roos
Italian: rosa centofoglie
Spanish: rosa centifolia, rosa de cien hojas, rosa común
Rosa centifolia‘Crested Moss’
Cabbage rose may date from ancient times, but it definitely appeared in the form ‘Maxima’ from Dutch nurseries in the sixteenth century. ‘Maxima’ is now difficult to locate, and some modern nurseries pawn off other cultivars that do not match the ‘Maxima’ pictured in early Dutch paintings. The true ‘Maxima’ looks like a small, pink cabbage, as the name implies. While desirable for form, color, and texture, true cabbage roses tend to be rather weak plants.
Rosa centifolia, translated as the hundred-leaved (petaled) rose, gave rise to many cultivars in Dutch and French nurseries. Some nurseries still offer ‘Bullata’ (c. 1801), the cabbage-leaved cabbage rose, with red-tinged leaves that are crinkled like those of a cabbage.
The cabbage rose was particularly noted for sporting in the past to the moss roses; these roses have a distinctive pine-scented mossiness on the flower stem, hypanthium, and sepals. The most distinctive early moss is ‘Crested Moss’ (‘Chapeau de Napoléon’, 1827). These cultivars also have that full, cabbagey form and old-rose scent typical of the true cabbage rose in addition to the moss.
The rose water of R. centifolia is listed as GRAS at 100 ppm. Rose oil from Morocco, reputedly R. centifolia, was found to have anti-conflict effects from the content of beta-phenyl-ethanol and citronellol.
Important chemistry: The attar of ‘Crested Moss’ petals is dominated by 34 percent geraniol and 18 percent nerol. Oil from Morocco, supposedly R. centifolia, has 34 percent citronellol, 15 percent nonadecane, and 14 percent geraniol.
summer damask rose
French: rose de Damas
German: Damaszener Rose
Dutch: damast roos
Spanish: rosa damascena
The scientific name of R. damascena, the summer damask rose, was first published by Jean Herrmann in his Dissertatio Inauguralis Botanico-Medica de Rosa in 1762. However, Herrmann’s rose is not the damask rose we know, but an unidentified hybrid. Six years after Herrmann’s description was published, Philip Miller published R. damascena for the rose that we grow today. Because Herrmann’s prior use of this name takes precedence under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the correct name of today’s damask rose is actually unknown, but this is only one of many instances of confusion concerning the correct identity of roses. We use R. damascena here simply because no other name is currently available and generally understood. The damask rose may be derived from hybridization of R. moschata Herrm., R. gallica, and R. fedtschenkoana Regel, but futher studies are need to confirm this.
The rose commercially cultivated in the Kazanlik Valley of Bulgaria is usually listed in rose books as ‘Trigintipetala’, a name first published by G. Dieck in 1889. This cultivar has become thoroughly confused in the nursery trade with ‘Prof. Émile Perrot’, which was gathered from commercial fields in Iran and introduced by the rosarian Turbat in 1931. ‘Prof. Émile Perrot’ is the cultivar offered as ‘Trigintipetala’ by American, Canadian, and British nurseries; one leading American heritage-rose nursery even has the audacity to offer ‘Alika’ of 1906 as ‘Trigintipetala’. A rose similar to ‘Trigintipetala’ is ‘Gloire de Guilan’, which was gathered from commercial fields in the Caspian provinces of Iran by Nancy Lindsay and introduced by Hilling, a British rose nursery, in 1949. All these damask roses bear double flowers, usually pink, with typical damask scent.
‘York and Lancaster’ (‘Versicolor’, ‘Variegata’) is called the Tudor rose and supposedly originated about the time Henry VII ascended the throne in 1485; this story may be apocryphal because the rose can be dated with certainty only to the description of Clusius in 1601. The petals are usually white but sometimes streaked light pink, thereby uniting in a floral emblem the Houses of York and Lancaster (see R. alba var. alba, earlier, and R. gallica ‘Officinalis’, to come; also Shakespeare’s King Henry VI, part 1, act 2, scene 4, which explains the connection of the red and the white roses with the dispute: in this scene, English noblemen gathered in London discuss whose claim to the throne they will support).
Rosa damascena
The attar of R. damascena is listed as GRAS at 0.01 to 15 ppm. The essential oil is antibacterial. The tea made from the petals is rich in anti-oxidants.
Important chemistry: The commercial Bulgarian attar is dominated by 33 to 36 percent citronellol, 16 to 26 percent geraniol, and 5 to 14 percent nonadecane. Iranian oil is rich in 15 to 47 percent citronellol, 0 to 40 percent nonadecane, 0 to 19 percent docosane, 0 to 19 percent disiloxane, 0 to 18 percent geraniol, 0 to 18 percent heneicosane. Indian oil is rich in 15 to 36 percent geraniol, 12 to 36 percent citronellol, and trace to 25 percent nonadecane. Chinese oil is rich in 31 to 44 percent citronellol, 16 to 22 percent geraniol, and 2 to 17 percent nonadecane. Gülbirlik rose oil from Turkey has 31 to 44 percent citronellol, 8 to 15 percent nonadecane, and 9 to 14 percent geraniol. Turkish absolute is rich in 50 to 86 percent beta-phenyl-ethanol. The attar of ‘York and Lancaster’ is dominated by 25 percent geranyl acetate plus citronellol, 17 percent geraniol, and 11 percent heneicosane. The attar of ‘Trigintipetala’ is dominated by 19 percent nonadecane, 15 percent geranyl acetate plus citronellol, 14 percent geraniol, and 11 percent heneicosane. The attar of ‘Prof. Émile Perrot’ is dominated by 21 percent geraniol, 19 percent geranyl acetate plus citronellol, and 13 percent nonadecane. The attar of ‘Gloire de Guilan’ is dominated by 33 percent geraniol and 12 percent nonadecane.
French rose
French: rose rouge
German: Gallische Rose
Dutch: rode franse roos
Spanish: rosa frances
The French or Provins rose is usually cultivated as the semidouble, cherry-pink cultivar ‘Officinalis’, the apothecary’s rose. ‘Officinalis’ dates to about 1240 and was the red rose of the House of Lancaster, chosen by Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, in 1277. ‘Officinalis’ was the source of rose water as prepared in Provins, France. ‘Versicolor’ (‘Rosamundi’), a striped version of ‘Officinalis’, has been sometimes ascribed to the “Fayre Rosamonde,” the mistress of King Henry II of England, who died about 1176, but this rose can be dated with authority only to the description by L’Obel in 1581.
Rosa gallica ‘Officinalis’, sometimes called the “red damask,” was often pictured in paintings of the Virgin Mary, along with R. alba ‘Maxima’. The apothecary’s rose is a vigorous shrub to about 2.5 feet (0.8 m), but it sets out suckers like crazy from its own roots. The petals of ‘Officinalis’ retain their color nicely on drying and are thus good for potpourri. The petals are also reputed to retain their fragrance when dried, but we have not found any scientific proof for this tale.
Rosa gallica ‘Officinalis’
Important chemistry: The attar of ‘Officinalis’ is dominated by 17 percent nonadecane, 17 percent geraniol, and 12 percent nerol.
eglantine
The eglantine or sweet briar, known in French as églantier, has apple-scented young leaves, a unique characteristic among roses (the incense rose, R. primula Boulenger, has sandalwood-scented leaves). It is full of prickles with single, pink roses and grows to about 8 feet (2.4 m) in height. The eglantine was important in the Penzance hybrids, such as ‘Lord Penzance’ of 1894, with apple-scented young leaves and single, coppery pink flowers.
rugosa rose
The rugosa or ramanas rose is worth growing, not only for its large, red hips rich in vitamin C, but also because the curly, green foliage of this rose is rarely troubled by mildew or blackspot. The stems are coated with many fine green to brown prickles. Some hybrids of this rose, such as ‘Hansa’ (1905), have fine, damask rose–like odors besides good form and color. If you are interested in this species and its progeny, we recommend Suzanne Verrier’s book Rosa Rugosa. Aqueous and ethanol extracts of dried ramanas rose flowers have been shown to have HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitory activity.
Important chemistry: The attar of rugosa rose petals is dominated by 31 to 38 percent beta-phenylethanol, trace to 29 percent citronellol, 0 to 19 percent geranyl formate, trace to 14 percent nerol, and 6 to 14 percent geraniol.
Note: A key has been omitted for two reasons. First, a key would not be useful unless the thousands of cultivars could be included. Secondly, while rose books continue to designate cultivars, such as ‘Mme. Hardy’, as pure species, most roses are hybrids (‘Mme. Hardy’ is probably a damask × cabbage hybrid, not a pure damask rose).
R. alba L., Sp. pl. 492. 1753.
Native country: The white rose is not known outside cultivation.
General habit: The white rose is a deciduous shrub to 2 m.
Leaves: Leaves are divided into five leaflets, 2 to 6 cm long, broad-elliptic or egg-shaped, toothed, hairy beneath.
Flowers: Flowers are semidouble to double, white.
Fruits/seeds: Fruit is oblong-egg-shaped, red.
R. canina L., Sp. pl. 491. 1753.
Native country: The dog rose is native to Europe.
General habit: The dog rose is a deciduous shrub with green stems to 2.4 m.
Leaves: Leaves are divided into five to seven leaflets, 15 to 40 × 12 to 20 mm, egg-shaped or ellipse-shaped, toothed or doubly toothed, smooth and lacking in glands, dark to blue-green, shining or dull above.
Flowers: Flowers have 15 to 25 mm petals, pink to white.
Fruits/seeds: Fruit is globose, ovoid, or ellipse-shaped, smooth, red.
R. centifolia L., Sp. pl. 491. 1753.
Native country: The cabbage rose is not known outside cultivation.
General habit: The cabbage rose is a deciduous shrub to 2 m.
Leaves: Leaves are divided into five leaflets, hairy on both sides or only beneath, toothed.
Flowers: Flowers are very double, pink.
Fruits/seeds: Fruit is ellipsoid to almost globose.
R. damascena Mill., Gard. Dict. ed. 8. 1768.
Native country: The damask rose is not known outside cultivation.
General habit: The damask rose is a deciduous shrub to 2 m with numerous stout prickles.
Leaves: Leaves are divided into five to seven leaflets, egg-shaped to oblong-egg-shaped, toothed, smooth above, more or less hairy beneath.
Flowers: Flowers are double, pink.
Fruits/seeds: Fruit is almost egg-shaped, hairy, red.
R. gallica L., Sp. pl. 492. 1753.
Native country: The French rose is native to southern and central Europe.
General habit: The French rose is a deciduous shrub, 0.4 to 0.8 m high, forming large patches.
Leaves: Leaves are divided into three to seven leaflets, 20 to 60 × 18 to 30 mm, leathery, almost globe-shaped to egg-shaped, rounded at the apex, usually doubly toothed, dull bluish green and smooth above, paler, hairy, and glandular below.
Flowers: Solitary flowers, rarely two to four per stalk, are 6 to 9 cm in diameter, deep pink.
Fruits/seeds: Fruit is globose to spindle-shaped, densely glandular hairy, bright red.
R. rubiginosa L., Mant. pl. 2:564. 1771 (R. eglanteria L.).
Native country: The eglantine is native to most of Europe.
General habit: The eglantine is a deciduous shrub to 3 m.
Leaves: Leaves are divided into five to seven leaflets, 10 to 25 × 8 to 15 mm, almost orbicular to egg-shaped, doubly toothed, smooth or hairy above, usually hairy and more or less glandular beneath.
Flowers: Flower has 8 to 15 mm petals, deep pink.
Fruits/seeds: Fruit is almost globe-shaped, ovoid, or ellipse-shaped, smooth or glandular hairy, bright red.
R. rugosa Thunb., Fl. jap. 213. 1784.
Native country: The rugosa rose is native to China and Japan.
General habit: The rugosa rose is a deciduous shrub to 2 m, densely bristly and prickly.
Leaves: Leaves are divided into five to nine leaflets, 2 to 5 cm long, slightly waxy, wrinkled, lustrous, dark green, smooth above, hairy beneath.
Flowers: Flowers are single, cherry-pink to purple to white.
Fruits/seeds: Fruit is depressed globe-shaped, smooth, brick-red.
rosemary
Family: Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Growth form: shrub to 6 feet (2 m)
Hardiness: routinely hardy to North Carolina (Zone 8), but some cultivars hardy to New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland (Zone 7)
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not wet; can withstand mild drought
Soil: well drained, sandy or gravelly, pH 4.5 to 8.7, average 6.8
Propagation: cuttings easiest and necessary for named cultivars, otherwise seeds in spring, 25,000 seeds per ounce (882/g)
Culinary use: lamb, venison, poultry, and other dishes
Craft use: wreaths, potpourri, scents
Landscape use: groundcover to tall shrubs
French: romarin
German: Rosmarin
Dutch: rozemarijn
Italian: ramerino
Spanish: romero, rosmarino
Portuguese: alecrim
Swedish: rosmarin
Russian: rozmarin
Chinese: mi-tieh-hsiang
Japanese: 
Arabic: iklil al-ajbal
Rosemary symbolizes remembrance, and for good reason. After working with rosemary plants for any length of time or even brushing against them, its piney fragrance clings with special fondness to wool, hair, and human skin. Its fragrance invokes images of fresh-roasted lamb on skewers of rosemary branches prepared over a campfire on a gravelly beach with the Mediterranean Sea breaking in the background.
Rosmarinus species are often found clinging to sea-cliffs; the generic name is aptly derived from the Latin ros, “dew” (“spray”), and marinus, “sea.” The specific epithet, officinalis, means “of the shops,” or medicinal. The narrow leaves are tightly arranged along branches, giving it, along with the piney scent, the general appearance of a conifer. The brilliant blue flowers, which can appear almost any time of the year, depending upon the cultivar, supposedly assumed their color when the Virgin Mary draped her cloak to dry upon the plant on her flight into Egypt.
Rosmarinus officinalis is the chief species cultivated, but this genus also includes two other species, R. eriocalyx Jord. & Fourr. and R. tomentosus Huber-Morat & Maire. Both are restricted to southeastern Spain and northwestern Africa. The upright rosemarys are hardy to Zone 8, but ‘Arp’ and ‘Madalene Hill’ have withstood winters in Zone 6. The prostrate rosemarys are marginally hardy to Zone 8 but more reliably survive Zone 9 winters.
Rosemary is difficult to grow from seed because of low viability and slow growth, and of course named cultivars do not remain true to type when seed-grown. Cuttings root readily in water, a variety of aggregates, or a combination of sphagnum peat and perlite; a rooting hormone such as 0.8 percent indole butyric acid (IBA) or 5,000 ppm naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) in talc may encourage a more vigorous root structure but does not speed the rooting process. For maximum growth, rosemary does well in a perlite or soilless mix composed of about 50 percent perlite and 50 percent coarse sphagnum peat moss with some lime and trace elements. For greenhouse production of rosemary, Paul Westervelt and Holly Scoggins at Virginia Tech found that a peat medium (Fafard 3B) produced the largest plants.
Rosemary in pots is especially sensitive to overwatering; the soil must dry slightly between waterings, but not to the point that the plant wilts. Overwatered rosemary develops browned leaf tips, an indication that some roots may have begun to rot. Clay pots will allow the soil to dry faster, a property that lessens root-rot problems during periods of low light in winter. Pot-grown plants may become root-bound quickly (yellowing of lower leaves at the base of the plant is an early warning of the stress from this condition) and should be repotted during periods of rapid growth—spring and summer in most parts of North America.
Rosmarinus officinalis
The ratios of the nitrogen and potassium, in particular, can influence the oil, depending upon the cultivar. In pots of soilless mix, fertilize weekly with a water-soluble 20-5-20 formula in combination with a 10-5-10 controlled-release fertilizer. Plants in the garden may be fertilized once in the season with a granular 5-10-5 or 10-10-10 during active growth.
Rosemary grows rapidly in the heat of summer and may be pruned severely to shape the plants or to keep them from interfering with nearby herbs. Pruning is also a good method of maintaining air flow around and through rosemary plants, an important cultural feature that helps prevent foliar diseases that cause wilts.
