Rosemary is subject to attacks from spider mites, mealybugs, whiteflies, and thrips. Web (aerial) blight from Rhizoctonia solani produces twig and branch blight on the interior of the plant, so be sure to maintain good air circulation. A stem rot, caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, has been reported. A “stem knot” is quite common; the cause is unknown but it resembles bacterial infections caused by Pseudomonas, Agrobacterium, and Xanthomonas species, bacterial stem galls that are difficult to control because they are essentially systemic, growing from the inside out. This infection spreads through dirty pruning clippers and nearby plants, and newly propagated cuttings may carry it. Overhead watering and exceedingly damp and rainy summers are often associated with the arrival of rosemary stem gall. Organic mulches near the base of the plant often hold water and moisture near low-lying foliage, which provides a home and pathways for water-borne fungi and bacteria. Mulches of pea gravel or sand, which dry rapidly and radiate drying heat into the interior of dense rosemary plants, help to lessen diseases.
France, Spain, Portugal, the former Yugoslavia, and California supply most of the rosemary consumed in the United States, while Spain and France supply most of the rosemary oil.
Rosemary has many varieties of growth pattern, floral color, and scent. Both upright and prostrate growth patterns are available. Floral color varies from intense blue-violet to lavender to pink to white. Scent varies from robust and piney to those with subtle, flowery, spicy undertones. While some cultivars are grown merely for their landscape value, all can be used in cooking and each imparts its own individual flavor. The distinguishing characteristics of some of the cultivars are listed here (infraspecific taxonomy is still uncertain because of a good, recent revision of the genus and is omitted).
Cultivar: ‘Albus’
Synonyms: ‘Albiflorus’, ‘White Flower’
Origin: This general name has been applied to a variety of different cultivars, ranging from pure white to pale blue and does not denote a specific clone (see, for example, ‘Huntington Blue’, ‘Logee White’, and ‘Nancy Howard’).
Cultivar: ‘Alderley’
Origin: France, by Alvilde Lees-Milne in 1960s; selected at Alderley Grange, Gloucestershire, England
Foliage/growth: small sprawling shrub with some pendant stems reaching to the ground and arching upward
Flowers: pale sky-blue
Synonyms: ‘Prostrate #4’
Origin: Cyrus Hyde, Port Murray, New Jersey
Foliage/growth: green, prostrate
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Essential oil: 29 percent alpha-pinene, 16 percent 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus-pine)
Cultivar: ‘Argenteus’
Foliage/growth: edged with white, upright
Flowers: blue-violet
Comments: noted as early as 1654, the silver-striped rosemary has apparently been lost to cultivation, but Silver Spires™ is another, recent mutation
Cultivar: ‘Arp’
Origin: Arp, Texas; selected by Madalene Hill, Cleveland, Texas, in 1972
Hardiness: Zone 7
Foliage/growth: upright
Flowers: pale blue-violet
Essential oil: 42 percent 1,8-cineole, 19 percent camphor, 10 percent alpha-pinene (pine-camphor-eucalyptus)
Comments: very hardy
Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Arp’
Cultivar: ‘Athens Blue Spires’
Origin: University of Georgia, Athens, introduced by Allan Armitage, James Garner, and Jimmy Greer
Foliage/growth: upright
Flowers: light blue
Cultivar: ‘Aureus’
Synonyms: ‘Gilded’, var. foliis aureis
Foliage/growth: splashed with yellow, upright
Flowers: pale blue-violet
Comments: variegation of the gilded rosemary, probably of viral origin, shows up only in certain climates and weather
Cultivar: ‘Benenden Blue’
Synonyms: var. angustifolius, var. angustissimus, ‘Collingwood Ingram’, ‘Ingrami’
Origin: 1930 Bonifacio, Corsica; selected by Collingwood Ingram, Benenden, Kent, England, and introduced into California by Elizabeth de Forest
Foliage/growth: narrow green, upright
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Essential oil: 51 percent alpha-pinene (pine)
Comments: initially erect branches soon arch and flow sideways
Cultivar: ‘Blue Boy’
Origin: Huntington Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California
Foliage/growth: narrow green, sprawling
Flowers: pale blue-violet
Comments: unique small leaves make it a beautiful plant for pots and bonsai
Cultivar: ‘Blue Lady’
Origin: ‘Prostratus’ × ‘Majorca’ by Sandy Mush Herb Nursery, Leicester, North Carolina
Foliage/growth: narrow green, flowing
Flowers: blue-violet
Origin: England
Foliage/growth: green, columnar
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Essential oil: 44 percent alpha-pinene, 30 percent 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus-pine)
Cultivar: ‘Bolham Blue’
Origin: found and selected by Mrs. Lena Hickson, Bolham, Devon
Foliage: glossy, yellow-green, lower surface pale gray-green
Flowers: calyx dark purple tinged green, corollas blue-purple, blotched with dark purple and a paler center
Cultivar: ‘Calabriensis’
Origin: England
Cultivar: ‘Capercaillie’
Origin: Scotland
Foliage/growth: pale, vibrant green, bushy
Flowers: bright blue
Cultivar: ‘Capri’
Foliage/growth: prostrate
Cultivar: ‘Cascade’
Foliage/growth: prostrate
Cultivar: ‘Corsican Blue’
Synonyms: R. corsicus
Origin: originally from Corsica and introduced by Jackmans, Woking, Surrey, England
Foliage/growth: narrow, glossy dark green, upright
Flowers: lobelia blue
Cultivar: ‘Dancing Waters’
Origin: ‘Majorca’ × ‘Prostratus’ by Sandy Mush Herb Nursery, Leicester, North Carolina
Foliage/growth: dark green, sprawling
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Cultivar: ‘Dark Logee Blue’
Origin: Country Greenhouses, Danielson, Connecticut
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Cultivar: ‘Duplici’
Flowers: double blue
Comments: the double-flowered rosemary, listed by Parkinson in 1629, has been lost to cultivation
Cultivar: ‘Dutch Mill’
Origin: Barbara Remington, Forest Grove, Oregon
Hardiness: Zone 7?
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: pale blue-violet
Essential oil: 32 percent alpha-pinene, 30 percent 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus-pine)
Cultivar: ‘Fota Blue’
Origin: Fota Island, Ireland
Foliage/growth: short, rather wide leaves, predominantly prostrate
Flowers: dark blue
Cultivar: ‘Gorizia’
Origin: Italy; introduced by Thomas DeBaggio, Arlington, Virginia
Foliage/growth: gray-green, upright
Flowers: lobelia blue
Essential oil: 21 percent bornyl acetate, 19 percent camphor, 15 percent borneol (camphor-rosemary)
Comments: good sturdy growth
Foliage/growth: upright
Flowers: blue
Cultivar: ‘Herbal Gem’
Foliage/growth: upright
Cultivar: ‘Herb Cottage’
Synonyms: ‘Foresteri’
Origin: Cathedral Herb Garden, Washington, D.C.
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: pale blue-violet
Essential oil: 53 percent alpha-pinene, 21 percent 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus-pine)
Cultivar: ‘Holly Hyde’
Synonyms: ‘Yellow Green Leaf’
Origin: Cyrus Hyde, Port Murray, New Jersey
Foliage/growth: yellow-green, prostrate
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Essential oil: 28 percent 1,8-cineole, 17 percent camphor, 14 percent alpha-pinene (pine-camphor-eucalyptus)
Cultivar: ‘Howe’
Origin: Keith Howe, Country Gardens, Seattle, Washington
Hardiness: Zone 7?
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: blue-violet
Cultivar: ‘Huntington Blue’
Synonyms: ‘Alba’
Origin: Huntington Botanical Garden, San Marino, California
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: very pale blue-violet
Cultivar: ‘Israeli Commercial’
Origin: Israel
Hardiness: Zone 8
Foliage/growth: large leaves
Flowers: very pale blue, infrequent
Comments: withstands shipping and storage better than most cultivars; stems produce aerial roots readily
Cultivar: ‘Joyce DeBaggio’
Synonyms: ‘Golden Rain’
Origin: Thomas DeBaggio, Arlington, Virginia
Foliage/growth: edged in gold, upright
Flowers: pale blue-violet
Essential oil: 19 percent camphor
Comments: good stable variegation; unique camphoraceous odor; similar to ‘Genges Gold’ from New Zealand
Rosmarinus officinalis
‘Joyce DeBaggio’
Cultivar: ‘Kent Taylor’
Origin: sport of ‘Majorca’, named after Kent Taylor of Taylor’s Herb Farm in Pasadena, California
Foliage/growth: green, prostrate
Flowers: dark blue
Comments: rare in cultivation
Foliage/growth: delicate, dark green, yellow-tinged young shoots
Flowers: pure white
Cultivar: ‘Light Logee Blue’
Synonyms: ‘Pale Blue’
Origin: Country Greenhouses, Danielson, Connecticut
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: medium blue-violet in center, light blue violet on lower lips
Essential oil: 58 percent alpha-pinene, 19 percent 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus-pine)
Cultivar: ‘Lockwood de Forest’
Synonyms: sold under various aliases, such as ‘Prostratus’ or ‘Prostrate #5’
Origin: probably selfed selection of ‘Prostratus’ mid 1930s by Mrs. Lockwood de Forest, Santa Barbara, California
Foliage/growth: green, sprawling
Flowers: light blue-violet
Essential oil: 27 percent 1,8-cineole, 20 percent alpha-pinene, 15 percent camphor (camphor-pine-eucalyptus)
Comments: the plant usually sold as ‘Lockwood de Forest’ is ‘Prostratus’
Cultivar: ‘Logee White’
Synonyms: ‘Alba’
Origin: Logee’s, Danielson, Connecticut
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: white
Essential oil: 52 percent alpha-pinene, 19 percent 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus-pine)
Cultivar: ‘Lottie DeBaggio’
Origin: Thomas DeBaggio, Arlington, Virginia
Hardiness: Zone 8, marginal in Zone 7
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: very pale blue-violet
Cultivar: ‘Madalene Hill’
Synonyms: ‘Hill Hardy’
Origin: introduced by Thomas DeBaggio, Arlington, Virginia
Hardiness: Zone 7
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: pale blue-violet
Comments: very hardy
Cultivar: ‘Majorca’
Synonyms: ‘Collingwood Ingram’, ‘Rex #4’, ‘Wood’
Origin: Majorca
Foliage/growth: green, sprawling-upright
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Essential oil: 32 percent alpha-pinene, 11 percent camphor, 11 percent bornyl acetate, 10 percent 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus-rosemary-camphor-pine)
Comments: flowers of intense bluebird blue, the lower perianth segments with a deeper blotch
Cultivar: ‘Majorca Pink’
Synonyms: R. prostrata rosea, ‘Roseus’
Foliage/growth: pale green, sprawling
Flowers: amethyst-violet
Essential oil: 57 percent camphor
Comments: unique growth form and camphoraceous odor, but floral color more lavender than pink
Cultivar: ‘McConnell’s Blue’
Synonyms: ‘Mrs. McConnell’
Origin: Ireland
Hardiness: Zone 8
Foliage/growth: leaves short and rather wide; low growing, rather sprawling habit with erect laterals
Flowers: medium blue
Origin: Mercer Hubbard, Pittsboro, North Carolina
Hardiness: Zone 7?
Foliage/growth: green, sprawling
Flowers: blue-violet
Cultivar: ‘Miss Jessopp’s Upright’
Synonyms: ‘Miss Jessup’s Upright’ (typographical error), ‘Miss Jessopp’s Variety’
Origin: Euphemia Jessopp via E. A. Bowles, England
Foliage/growth: green, columnar
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Essential oil: 53 percent alpha-pinene, 14 percent 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus-pine)
Comments: ‘Corsicus’, ‘Fastigiatus’, and ‘Trusty’ are probably not sufficiently different to warrant separate names; ‘Miss Jessopp’s Upright’ has been applied to many different upright selections
Cultivar: ‘Mrs. Reed’s Dark Blue’
Origin: Joanna Reed, Malvern, Pennsylvania
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Comments: good intense floral color
Cultivar: ‘Mt. Vernon’
Origin: Mt. Vernon, Virginia
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Comments: no special reason to grow this other than its origin
Cultivar: ‘Nancy Howard’
Synonyms: ‘Alba Heavy Leaf’
Origin: Cyrus Hyde, Port Murray, New Jersey
Hardiness: marginal in Zone 7
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: white
Essential oil: 46 percent alpha-pinene, 23 percent 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus-pine)
Comments: good semi-hardy white rosemary
Cultivar: ‘Pinkie’
Origin: Huntington Botanical Garden, San Marino, California
Foliage/growth: yellow-green, sprawling
Flowers: pink-lavender
Comments: probably closest to pink flowers in rosemary
Cultivar: ‘Portuguese Pink’
Origin: Portugal via Judy Kehs, Cricket Hill Herb Farm, Rowley, Massachusetts
Flowers: pink
Cultivar: ‘Portuguese Red’
Origin: Portugal via Judy Kehs, Cricket Hill Herb Farm, Rowley, Massachusetts
Flowers: dark pink
Cultivar: ‘Primley Blue’
Synonyms: ‘Frimley Blue’ (typographical error)
Origin: Paignton Zoo, Devon, England
Foliage/growth: narrow olive-green, upright
Flowers: China blue
Cultivar: ‘Prostratus’
Synonyms: ‘Dwarf Prostrate’, ‘Golden Prostrate’, ‘Huntington Carpet’, ‘Kenneth Prostrate’, ‘Prostrate #3’, ‘Santa Barbara’ (offered as separate clones, all these are seemingly identical)
Foliage/growth: green, prostrate
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Essential oil: 25 percent 1,8-cineole, 23 percent alpha-pinene, 13 percent camphor (camphor-pine-eucalyptus)
Comments: plant sometimes offered under this name is actually ‘Lockwood de Forest’, and ‘Prostratus’ is sometimes sold as ‘Lockwood de Forest’; ‘Prostratus’ has, unfortunately, been applied by nurserymen to any prostrate rosemary
Cultivar: ‘Pyramidalis’
Synonyms: ‘Robinson’s Variety’
Origin: W. Robinson, Gravetye Manor, England
Foliage/growth: narrow green, columnar
Comments: very similar to ‘Miss Jessopp’s Upright’ and possibly not sufficiently different to warrant a separate cultivar name
Cultivar: ‘Rampant Boule’
Origin: France
Foliage/growth: dense, ground-hugging
Cultivar: ‘Renzels’
Synonyms: Irene™
Origin: spontaneous seedling discovered in a California garden by Philip Johnson; named for Princess Irene (a.k.a. Renzels), Johnson’s black labrador
Foliage/growth: prostrate
Flowers: pale blue
Comments: U.S. PP124
Cultivar: ‘Rexford’
Origin: Rexford Talbot, Williamsburg, Virginia
Foliage/growth: upright
Flowers: blue
Cultivar: ‘Roman Vivace’
Synonyms: ‘Roman Vicace’ (typographical error)
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: wisteria blue
Essential oil: 27 percent camphor, 21 percent alpha-pinene, 14 percent camphene, 13 percent 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus-pine-camphor)
Cultivar: ‘Russian River’
Origin: Janis Teas, Teas Herbs and Orchids, Magnolia, Texas
Foliage/growth: upright
Cultivar: ‘Salem’
Origin: originally from Old Salem, North Carolina; introduced by Sandy Mush Herb Nursery, Leicester, North Carolina
Hardiness: marginal in Zone 7
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: blue-violet
Cultivar: ‘Sarah’s White’
Origin: Bernard Sparkes, Wye College, Kent, England
Flowers: white
Cultivar: ‘Severn Sea’
Synonyms: ‘Seven Seas’ (typographical error)
Origin: raised by Norman Hadden from a seedling, selected and obtained from Herbert Whitley, growing at Paignton Zoo, Devon, England, in the 1950s
Hardiness: marginal in Zone 8
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Essential oil: 36 percent 1,8-cineole, 26 percent alpha-pinene (pine-eucalyptus)
Comments: branches arch and dip when they reach 2 to 3 feet (61 to 91 cm)
Cultivar: ‘Shady Acres’
Origin: Theresa Mieseler, Shady Acres Herb Farm, Chaska, Minnesota
Foliage/growth: dark green, upright
Flowers: deep blue
Essential oil: 27 percent alpha-pinene, 23 percent 1,8-cineole, 7 percent verbenone (pine-eucalyptus)
Origin: South Wight Council, Ventnor Botanic Garden, England
Foliage/growth: green, prostrate
Flowers: blue
Comments: may not remain in cultivation
Cultivar: ‘Shimmering Stars’
Origin: ‘Prostratus’ × ‘Majorca Pink’ by Sandy Mush Herb Nursery, Leicester, North Carolina
Foliage/growth: broad green, sprawling
Flowers: pink buds opening to pale blue-violet
Cultivar: ‘Sissinghurst Blue’
Synonyms: ‘Brevifolia’
Origin: chance seedling found in 1958 at Sissinghurst Castle, Cranbrook, Kent, England
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: blue-violet
Cultivar: ‘Sudbury Blue’
Foliage/growth: dense blue-green, upright
Flowers: speckled blue
Cultivar: ‘Talbot Blue’
Origin: Talbot Manor, Suffolk, England
Foliage/growth: upright
Flowers: blue
Cultivar: ‘Taylor’s Blue’
Synonyms: ‘False Tuscan Blue’
Origin: Taylor’s Herb Gardens, Vista, California
Foliage/growth: green, prostrate
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Essential oil: 31 percent 1,8-cineole, 28 percent alpha-pinene, 14 percent beta-thujone plus 1-octen-3-ol (sage-pine-eucalyptus)
Comments: unique sage-like odor
Cultivar: ‘Topsy’
Origin: Betty Rollins, Berkeley, California
Foliage/growth: green, sprawling
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Cultivar: ‘Tuscan Blue’
Synonyms: ‘Erectus’
Origin: prior to 1948 from Tuscany, Italy, by W. Arnold-Forster, Cornwall, England
Foliage/growth: broad green, columnar
Flowers: dark blue-violet
Essential oil: 45 percent alpha-pinene, 15 percent 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus-pine)
Cultivar: ‘Very Oily’
Origin: Huntington Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California
Hardiness: Zone 7?
Foliage/growth: green, upright
Flowers: medium blue-violet
Essential oil: 39 percent alpha-pinene, 31 percent 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus-pine)
Cultivar: ‘Well Sweep’
Synonyms: ‘Alba Thin Leaf’
Origin: Cyrus Hyde, Port Murray, New Jersey
Foliage/growth: narrow green, upright
Flowers: pale blue-violet
Cultivar: ‘Well Sweep Golden’
Synonyms: ‘Golden’
Origin: Cyrus Hyde, Port Murray, New Jersey
Foliage/growth: yellow-green, maturing to green, upright
Flowers: pale blue-violet
Essential oil: 46 percent alpha-pinene, 12 percent myrcene, 11 percent 1,8-cineole (eucalyptus-pine)
Cultivar: ‘Wolros’
Synonyms: Silver Spires™
Origin: discovered in 1986 by Christine Wolters, United Kingdom
Foliage/growth: pale green margined with white
Flowers: blue
Comments: Silver Spires™ is the trademark name at the U.K. Patent Office
Other cultivars merely mentioned in the literature with little qualifying characteristics are ‘Blue Gem’, ‘Blue Spears’, ‘Corsicus Prostratus’, ‘Heavenly Blue’, ‘Maggie’s Choice’, ‘Marshall Street’, ‘Robustifolius’, ‘Sawyer’s Selection’, ‘Tough Stuff ’, and ‘Wonderful’. The cultivars of rosemary have been selected from several botanical varieties and forms. Please remember that a cultivar is a category unto itself and is not subordinate to the botanical taxa. Many cultivars are also hybrids of botanical taxa and thus difficult to fit within any classification scheme. Thus, we may speak of ‘Nancy Howard’ as being selected from var. officinalis f. albiflorus but don’t bother to cite it as R. officinalis var. officinalis f. albiflorus ‘Nancy Howard’.
An evaluation of rosemary cultivars by Daniel Warnock and Charles Voigt at the University of Illinios found that five were especially good for use as Christmas topiaries: ‘Athens Blue Spires’, ‘Herb Cottage’, ‘Joyce DeBaggio’, ‘Shady Acres’, and ‘Taylor’s Blue’ (a sixth cultivar, listed as ‘Rex’, is a name that has been applied to more than one cultivar).
Rosemary leaves are GRAS at 380 to 4,098 ppm, while the oil is GRAS at 0.5 to 40 ppm. Rosemary leaves have antioxidant and antimutagenic properties from the content of phenolic diterpenes, particularly carnosic acid, carnosol, epirosmanol, and isorosmanol. These compounds show higher antioxidative activity than the commonly used BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) and have been commercially produced as natural food preservatives for fatty foods, such as potato chips. Luteolin is an antioxidant flavonoid in rosemary leaves.
Rosemary oil has also been demonstrated to be antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral. It stimulates the production of bile, prevents liver damage, and possesses anti-inflammatory and antimutagenic effects. Researchers have found that the volatile oil of rosemary leaves may be useful in treating diabetes and dementia; the extract has shown an anti-implantation effect in rats. Rosemary oil may also repel aphids and mites.
Aromatherapists who use rosemary oil should be aware that rosemary oil increases loco-motor activity, apparently from the content of 1,8-cineole. Aromatherapists should also be aware that rosemary oils vary considerably and there is not a standard rosemary oil, so the physiologic effects from one rosemary oil to another may vary. Rosemary oil has also been reported to induce contact dermatitis.
Important chemistry: The oil of commercial rosemary is predominantly composed of trace to 47 percent alpha-pinene, trace to 60 percent camphene, 4 to 60 percent 1,8-cineole, trace to 47 percent camphor, trace to 23 percent bornyl acetate, and trace to 18 percent borneol. Dried rosemary leaves have 2 to 4 percent carnosic acid and 0.2 to 0.4 percent carnosol. Cultivars vary in content of rosmarinic acid, but one of the highest is ‘Benenden Blue’.
R. officinalis L., Sp. pl. 23. 1753.
Native country: Rosemary is native to the Mediterranean region.
General habit: Rosemary is an erect or procumbent shrub to 2 m.
Leaves: Leaves are 15 to 40 × 1.2 to 3.5 mm, linear, leather-textured, with margins rolled back upon the lower side, bright green and wrinkled above, with a dense wool-like covering of white, matted, tangled hairs of medium length beneath, stalkless.
Flowers: Inflorescence and flower stalk have star-shaped, tangled hairs. Calyx is 3 to 4 mm, green or purplish and sparsely coated with matted, tangled hairs when young, later 5 to 7 mm, almost smooth, and distinctly veined. Flower is pale blue, pink, or white.
garden rue
Family: Rutaceae
Growth form: shrubby semi-evergreen perennial to 20 inches (50 cm)
Hardiness: Zone 6
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not wet; can withstand minor drought
Soil: well-drained garden loam, pH 5.5 to 8.2, average 6.7
Propagation: seeds in spring, 16,300 seeds per ounce (575/g)
Culinary use: limited; may be toxic to sensitive individuals
Craft use: none
Landscape use: avoid paths where bare legs can brush against it
French: rue odorante, péganion, rue fétide
German: Gartenraute, Raute, Weinkraut, Weinraute, Edelraute
Dutch: wijnruit
Italian: ruta
Spanish: ruda, armaga, arruda
Chinese: yün-hsiang-ts’ao
Arabic: sadab
Garden rue is appreciated for its wonderful blue-green leaves with an acrid, orange-like, poppyseed-like scent, but don’t touch those leaves on a hot, summer day or you’ll “rue the day.” Large, watery blisters will develop within the hour and, depending upon your sensitivity and the sunlight, will leave nasty scars. Scientifically, garden rue is called a “photosensitizer” because it requires sunlight to produce skin sensitization.
Garden rue is a semi-evergreen perennial shrublet widespread in sunny, arid areas of southern Europe and North Africa but perhaps native to the Balkans and the Crimea. This 20-inch (50 cm) high herb has slightly greenish yellow flowers in May to June and unusual sparse leaves coated with a blue wax.
Ruta graveolens
Ruta was the ancient Latin name for rue. The genus Ruta includes about seven species of Macronesia and the Mediterranean. Some authors have divided R. graveolens into R. hortensis Mill. and R. divaricata Tenore, but these species are not widely recognized. A variegated form (‘Variegata’) and a compact blue form (‘Blue Mound’) are sometimes available.
Southern Europeans, especially country folk, have a decided taste for rue leaves chopped in cheese and in salads. One of the lesser-known decorative and gustatory uses of rue is as a flavoring agent in grappa, once a home-brew moonshine of Italian peasants distilled from fermented grape skins left over after the wine pressing; grappa has taken on a more sophisticated image as a grape brandy in recent years. After the grappa is distilled, a rue stem is placed in a bottle and the grape brandy is poured over it; soon the blue-green rue stem is white. The bleached rue branches dances suggestively in the clear liquid with each movement of the bottle. This aqua vitae burns a path down your throat and leaves a slight, lingering, earthy taste of rue.
Solvent extracts of garden rue have been documented to have antifertility activity in rats when added to the diet up to ten days after coitus. The oil is documented to produce hemorrhage effects when taken internally, as well as stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, confusion, convulsions, and death; abortion may also result. The International Fragrance Association recommends that rue oil not be used for applications on areas of skin exposed to sunshine and to limit rue oil to 3.9 percent in a compounded fragrance. Steffen Arctander has advised, in his Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, to avoid rue oil completely in fragrance and flavor work. Paradoxically, the essential oil of rue is considered GRAS at 1 to 10 ppm, and the Council of Europe has included garden rue oil in the list of flavoring substances temporarily admitted for use. On top of that, Japanese rsearchers have found that an extract of rue stimulates the growth of hair.
Rue is easily grown in well-drained garden loam in full sun. Its fertilizer and cultural requirements are minimal. In the spring, after the first year of growth, prune the stems of rue 6 to 8 inches above the ground. Follow this procedure each spring, and a well-shaped, handsome plant will result. Beware, though: rue can inhibit the growth of nearby plants, and Italian researchers have even isolated potential allelo-chemicals that could be used as pre-emergent herbicides.
Rue is a magnet for black swallowtail butterflies, which lay their eggs on the plant’s leaves; these hatch a colorful yellow, chartreuse, and black caterpillar that may defoliate the plant if the gardener is unaware. Garden rue has an unusual horticultural use as a breeding area for the tiny parasitic wasp Encarsia formosa, which serves as a natural control of whiteflies in the greenhouse; Doug Walker at the University of California-Davis noticed that garden rue plants were always infested with whiteflies in his greenhouse. He now uses the plants in his Integrated Pest Management program to propagate Encarsia and serve as an early warning monitor of whitefly invasion. Rue oil is toxic to some insects, such as Rhizopertha dominica and Tribolium castaneum, two pests of stored grain.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of garden rue is dominated by 2 to 84 percent 2-undecanone (methyl nonylketone), 5 to 39 percent 2-nonanone, 0 to 15 percent 2-undecyl acetate, and trace to 10 percent 2-nonyl acetate. The photosensitization is primarily produced by psoralen (0.126g/kg dry herb), bergapten (0.514 g/kg dry herb), and xanthotoxin (1.274 g/kg dry herb). Garden rue also contains a large number of quinoline and acridone alkaloids, such as rutaverine, arborinine, dictamnine, kokusagi-nine, skimmianine, fagarine, platydesminium, ribaliniu, and rutalinium.
R. graveolens L., Sp. pl. 383. 1753.
Native country: Rue is native to the Balkan Peninsula and the Crimea but widely naturalized from gardens throughout Europe and North America.
General habit: Rue is a smooth, blue-green semi-evergreen perennial 14 to 50 cm high.
Leaves: Lower leaves are more or less long-stalked, the uppermost almost stalkless; the ultimate segments 2 to 9 mm wide, lance-shaped to narrowly oblong to almost egg-shaped.
Flowers: Flowers are greenish yellow in a rather lax inflorescence.
Fruits/seeds: Fruits are smooth pockets with black seeds.
sage
Family: Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Growth form: from tufted herbaceous perennials to shrubs many feet high
Hardiness: some hardy to Zone 6 but most cannot withstand frost
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet; many can withstand minor drought
Soil: well-drained garden loam, pH 4.9 to 8.2, average 6.4 (S. officinalis)
Propagation: seeds or cuttings in spring, 3,400 seeds per ounce (119/g) (S. officinalis)
Culinary use: varied
Craft use: wreaths, potpourri
Landscape use: excellent in mixed borders
Salvia was a name used by the Romans for S. officinalis and was probably derived from salvus, a Latin word that denoted good health (sage was believed to have many healing properties). Fragrant foliage and brilliant flowers are typical of many of the 900 species of Salvia, so many of them make handsome additions to the herb garden and/or perennial border. Most species grow best when sited in full sun and well-drained soil, particularly those with gray foliage. Salvia is a genus with worldwide distribution but the greatest diversity is in the subtropics, especially the Americas, Sino-Himalayas, and southwestern Asia. Growth patterns range from herbaceous tufted alpines to woody shrubs.
Cleveland sage
Cleveland or blue sage was named by Harvard’s Asa Gray after the collector of the type specimen, Daniel Cleveland (1838–1929), but the commercial offerings of this species are actually hybrids, S. clevelandii × S. leucophylla Greene. In 1938 Carl Epling reported only one hybrid in existence, at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in California, and we suspect that this hybrid was later distributed in the trade simply as S. clevelandii. All the hybrids have pebbly gray foliage on stems to about 3 feet (1 m) high, and the foliage is scented of rose potpourri, a characteristic in common with S. leucophylla. While the flowers of the typical species are a good blue, backed by reddish calyces, they are lavender-blue in the hybrids. In both the species and hybrids, flowers are irregularly produced and do not present a dramatic show.
At least five selections of S. clevelandii × S. leucophylla are known, differing only slightly in scent, growth pattern, and/or floral color: ‘Allen Chickering’, ‘Aromas’, ‘Compact Form’, ‘Santa Cruz Dark’, and ‘Whirley Blue’. Even the unnamed clone passed around in the herb trade as simply S. clevelandii is from this cross. As might be expected of their southern California origins, Cleveland sage and its hybrids want well-drained, gravelly soil in full sun, probably hardy only to Zone 9. While some books have advocated that Cleveland sage be used in cooking, it does not have GRAS status.
‘Winifred Gilman’ seems to be the only cultivar in the trade that may be pure S. clevelandii. ‘Winifred Gilman’ is more difficult to grow than the hybrids and is characterized by pebbly green foliage scented of eucalyptus. Flowers should be dark violet-blue, but it has never flowered for us.
Important chemistry: The foliage of the hybrids is scented of rose potpourri with about 44 percent camphor and 19 percent 1,8-cineole in the essential oil; a multivariate analysis of the essential oil components confirmed no statistical differences among the named cultivars. The essential oil of ‘Winifred Gilman’ is characterized by around 20 percent 1,8-cineole with a eucalyptus-like scent.
peach sage
Peach sage, also known as fruit sage, was named by Paul Standley, who documented the trees and shrubs of Mexico and Central America in the early twentieth century. The name honors Doris Zemurray Stone (1909–1994), a friend of the Escuela Agricola Panamericana, not some ancient goddess named Doris (as apocryphally repeated in most horticultural books on sage). Doris Zemurray Stone was the daughter of Sam Zemurray (Schmuel Zmurri), founder of the United Fruit Company; she was an archaeologist and ethnographer and served as director of the National Museum of Costa Rica.
Salvia dorisiana
The leaves of peach sage can be dried and used in potpourri but have also been used to complement peach dishes, such as cobbler, despite its lack of GRAS status.
Peach sage is a robust, open plant with large leaves, 21 to 50 inches (7 to 14 cm) long by 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) wide, pale green, fleshy, and bristly-pebbly. Peach sage prefers part shade and constantly moist soil. This sage is extremely sensitive to frost, and since the rose-red flowers start forming very late in fall, it is often cut down before peak flowering. Under good conditions, peach sage may reach 47 inches (1.2 m) high.
Important chemistry: The essential oil is dominated by 27 to 28 percent perillyl acetate, 17 to 21 percent methyl perillate, and around 10 percent beta-caryophyllene, providing a peach-like odor reminiscent of perilla.
pineapple sage
Salvia elegans (“elegant sage”) is a vigorous, strong-stemmed plant with red-tinged green leaves that are scented of pineapples, giving it its common name. Salvia rutilans, a name sometimes applied to pineapple sage, is known only from cultivation, differing only in the smaller calyces and downier stems and probably not specifically different from S. elegans. Contrary to some popular horticultural books, pineapple sage is not a variety of S. splendens F. Sellow ex Roem. & Schult., the scarlet sage. ‘Honeydew Melon’ is a selection with a melon-like scent; ‘Golden Delicious’ has golden leaves, and ‘Frida Dixon’ is somewhat dwarf.
The young shoots of pineapple sage have been used to flavor cold drinks, and its fresh leaves and flowers have been used as garnishes for desserts despite its lack of GRAS status. Leaves are egg-shaped, tapering to a tip, 1 to 4 inches (2.5 to 10 cm) long arising from dark red, downy stems. The pineapple sage, like the peach sage, produces brilliant scarlet flowers just about the time it is cut down by frosts. Pineapple sage may reach 47 inches (1.2 m) high under optimum conditions.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of pineapple sage leaves contains 27 percent beta-caryophyllene, 22 percent 2-propanol, and 10 percent (E)-beta-ocimene.
Salvia elegans
Greek sage
Greek sage often comprises up to 95 percent of the dried, imported sage sold in the United States. Its eucalyptus-like aroma lacks the understated sweetness of garden sage, and the heavy presence of Greek sage may account for the musty odor of the commercial dried product. Often referred to as S. triloba in older literature, Greek sage has historical uses similar to garden sage. Greek sage is illustrated with what may be Rosa pulverulenta on the “blue bird fresco” in the House of Frescoes at Knossos (c. 1450 B.C.E.). The elongated egg-shaped leaves have two smaller lobes near the base. All vegetative parts are covered with a dense wool-like covering of matted, tangled hairs of medium length. Bright blue flowers appear in early winter.
Greek sage is extremely variable in both morphology and oil. Greek sage usually has a higher oil yield than garden sage. The oil is antimicrobial, cytotoxic, and antiviral.
While Greek sage is only reliably hardy in Zone 8b, hybridization with S. officinalis offers potential for new morphological and chemical types hardy further north. ‘Newe ‘Ya’ar’, a hybrid (primarily S. officinalis × S. fruticosa) cultivated in Israel, withstands heat very well, occasionally appears on the U.S. market, and is easily rooted; unfortunately, it is not routinely hardy above Zone 8.
Important chemistry: The oil of S. fruticosa consists of 19 to 68 percent 1,8-cineole, trace to 45 percent camphor, trace to 38 percent viridiflorol, 3 to 27 percent alpha-pinene, 2 to 11 percent beta-pinene, and trace to 10 percent beta-caryophyllene.
Spanish sage
The nine subspecies of Salvia lavandulifolia, the lavender-leaved sage, vary greatly in morphology and essential oils. In the cultivated plants in North America, the simple, stalked leaves are narrowly parallel-sided and covered with a dense wool-like covering of matted, tangled hairs. The blue flowers are rarely produced.
The essential oil is considered GRAS at 2 to 50 ppm but finds very little use in flavor work; it is primarily used to scent soaps. Ingestion of Spanish sage oil brings on convulsions from the toxicity of the camphor content. The dose at which rats show symptoms of toxicity is 0.005 ounce oil per pound of body weight (0.3 g/kg), while above 0.008 ounce per pound (0.5 g/kg) convulsions occur; above 0.05 ounces per pound (3.2 g/kg), the dose is lethal. Translating this to a 150-pound human, these numbers would be 0.72 ounce, 1.2 ounces, and 7.7 ounces, respectively.
The sabinyl acetate in the essential oil induces birth defects in mice, a cautionary indication that this oil should not be used in aromatherapy by pregnant women. Research has shown that an extract of S. lavandulifolia significantly decreases the blood-sugar levels of diabetic rats; it also displays anticholinesterase activity. Spanish sage oil has been found to enhance the memory in healthy young volunteers and may have usefulness in dementia therapy, particularly Alzheimer’s disease.
Important chemistry: The essential oil has 6 to 59 percent 1,8-cineole, 1 to 39 percent camphor, 2 to 28 percent beta-pinene, 3 to 28 percent alpha-pinene plus tricyclene, trace to 16 percent myrcene, trace to 14 percent camphene, 2 to 12 percent limonene, trace to 23 percent borneol, and trace to 12 percent viridiflorol, plus alpha-terpineol plus alpha-terpinyl acetate.
garden sage
French: sauge
German: Salbei
Dutch: salie
Italian: salvia
Spanish: salvia
Portuguese: salva
Swedish: salvia
Russian: shalfey
Chinese: chjing-chieh
Japanese: 
Arabic: mariyamiya
The specific epithet, officinalis, refers to the medicinal value of the sage in years past. Imported sage is chiefly gathered from the wild along the Dalmatian coast of the former Yugoslavia and Albania, hence an alternative name is Dalmatian sage. As a wild-gathered herb, it actually consists of not only S. officinalis but also S. fruticosa and hybrids of the two species. In fact, only 5 to 50 percent of imported sage may be S. officinalis.
Garden sage is widely used in flavoring condiments, cured meats (particularly sausage and poultry stuffing), liqueurs, and bitters. Garden sage oil is used to impart herbaceous notes to fragrances. The leaf is GRAS at 300 to 4,777 ppm; the oleoresin is GRAS at 10 to 139 ppm, while the essential oil is GRAS at 2 to 126 ppm. Sage yields an effective antioxidant that is relatively odorless and tasteless; this has been proposed as a preservative for fatty foods such as potato chips. The essential oil of sage is anti-mutagenic. Sage extract has also been found to be effective in the management of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Sage kills both bacteria and fungi. Sage extract may be useful in the control of Varroa mites in bee colonies.
Depending upon the source, garden sage seed may germinate unevenly and produce very variable plants, few of which have heavy, thick leaves with robust growth and the desired odor. Named cultivars are easily propagated from hormone-treated cuttings about 1½ to 2 inches (4 to 5 cm) long. If taken in late fall to early winter, the cuttings will establish ample roots in the greenhouse for transplanting by spring. Cuttings should be taken from new growth of non-flowering stems, preferably from the base of the plant if available.
Transplants should be set 15 to 24 inches (39 to 61 cm) apart in rows set about 3½ feet (about 1 m) apart. Approximately 7,000 plants per acre (17,297 plants/ha) would be required with these spacings.
Salvia officinalis
The home gardener will usually be satisfied with one or two large plants of sage. Home gardeners should pinch the growing tips regularly throughout the first summer to create many branches; also cut the plant back about a third before new growth starts in the second year. Before planting, a high grade commercial fertilizer (depending on the results of the soil test), with 89 to 134 pounds per acre (100 to 150 kg/ha) of nitrogen, should be drilled into the rows. A side-dressing of fertilizer should be given six to eight weeks later. After plants are established, fertilize about the time that growth starts in spring and repeat about the first week in June. Cultivate lightly through the spring and summer to control weeds. The first year should have one harvest of the terminal 3 to 5 inches (8 to 13 cm) during the fall; afterward, harvesting can be two to three times per summer.
Leaves and small tops will bring the best prices; keep the percentage of stems below 12 percent. In the first year, the yield is usually small, ranging from 200 to 600 pounds dried leaves per acre (224 to 672 kg/ha). In the second and subsequent years 1,500 to 2,000 pounds per acre (1,681 to 2,241 kg/ha) may be obtained. A regimen of three successive harvests produces the highest biomass yield. Experimental plantings in New Zealand have produced the phenomenal yield of 1,106 to 2,432 pounds per acre (1,240 to 5,080 kg/ha) the first year.
Sage loses its color and flavor rapidly with age, so bale and market the product as soon as possible. Blooming significantly reduces the harvest, so choose a cultivar with low flowering potential.
Sudden phytophthora, verticillium, and fusarium wilts are the most obnoxious diseases to confront sage. These can usually be remedied by increasing the drainage of the soil. Powdery mildew (Oidium spp.) occurs sometimes in hot, humid weather. Nematodes will also attack sage, and their presence accelerates sudden wilts.
Garden sage has a few cultivars, selected mainly for foliar or floral colors. All may be used for cooking, imparting their own particular flavors, but some taste better than others.
Cultivar: ‘Albiflora’
Foliage/growth: broad leaves, low height
Flowers: white
Essential oil: 37 percent beta-thuone and 23 percent camphor
Comments: tends to be weak and prone to wilts in hot climates
Cultivar: ‘Aurea’
Foliage/growth: gold-flushed leaves, low height
Flowers: lavender-blue
Comments: vastly confused in the horticultural literature with ‘Icterina’ (which see); ‘Aurea’ is a uniform golden green and very weak plant, not worth growing except as a curiosity
Cultivar: ‘Berggarten’ (“mountain garden”)
Synonyms: ‘Herrenhausen’
Origin: Herrenhausen Grosser Garten, Hanover, Germany
Foliage/growth: broad leaves, low height
Flowers: lavender-blue, infrequent
Essential oil: 25 percent camphor and 10 percent camphene
Comments: the best agronomic plant of the available cultivars, with very large leaves, few flowers, and an oil that matches much of the imported Dalmatian sage
Foliage/growth: narrow, upright, medium height
Flowers: lavender-blue
Essential oil: 21 percent 1,8-cineole and 19 percent camphor
Cultivar: ‘Crispa’
Foliage/growth: variegated with wavy margins
Cultivar: ‘Grandiflora’
Foliage/growth: leaves larger and wider with a heart-shaped base
Flowers: larger than typical
Cultivar: ‘Grete Stolze’
Foliage/growth: pointed, pale gray
Flowers: mauve-blue
Cultivar: ‘Icterina’
Synonyms: ‘Aurea’ (incorrect name, see earlier)
Foliage/growth: edged in gold, low height
Flowers: lavender-blue
Essential oil: 22 percent camphor, 11 percent alpha-thujone, and 10 percent alpha-humulene
Comments: generally not hardy above Zone 8
Cultivar: ‘Kew Gold’
Origin: a sport of ‘Icterina’, to which it sometimes reverts, selected by Brian Halliwell, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England
Foliage/growth: gold on green
Comments: seems to be a more vigorous version of ‘Aurea’
Cultivar: ‘Milleri’
Foliage/growth: red, blotched (maculae)
Cultivar: ‘Purpurascens’
Synonyms: ‘Purpurea’
Foliage/growth: broad, purple leaves, low height
Flowers: lavender-blue
Essential oil: 17 percent alpha-thujone, 17 percent alpha-humulene, 15 percent camphor, and 13 percent beta-pinene
Comments: oil matches much of the imported Dalmatian sage; good garden accent; a selection of this is ‘Robin Hill’
Cultivar: ‘Purpurascens Variegata’
Foliage/growth: cream markings on some leaves
Comments: a sport of ‘Purpurascens’
Cultivar: ‘Rubriflora’
Foliage/growth: narrow, upright, somewhat sparse
Flowers: pink
Essential oil: 27 percent alpha-thujone and 19 percent camphor
Comments: oil matches much of the imported Dalmatian sage
Cultivar: ‘Salicifolia’
Foliage/growth: leaves very long and narrow
Cultivar: ‘Sturnina’
Foliage/growth: white-green
Cultivar: ‘Tricolor’
Synonyms: Parkinson’s “party-colored sage”
Origin: probably a variegated ‘Purpurascens’
Foliage/growth: purple edged in white, low height
Flowers: lavender-blue
Essential oil: 20 percent camphor, 19 percent alpha-humulene, 14 percent alpha-thujone, and 12 percent beta-pinene
Comments: not hardy above Zone 8 and rather weak in growth but a good garden accent
Synonyms: ‘Woodcote’
Foliage/growth: broad leaves, low height
Flowers: lavender-blue, infrequent
Essential oil: 17 percent camphor and 11 percent alpha-thujone
Comments: good culinary sage and garden plant; occasionally offered in a variegated form
‘Holt’s Mammoth’ is another cultivar that needs clarification. What is the real ‘Holt’s Mammoth’? The original clone reputedly had larger leaves than the type; the cultivar usually offered in the United States is often propagated from seeds and no different from the type or any other seed-propagated sage. Is the sage now known as ‘Woodcote Farm’ the real ‘Holt’s Mammoth’? No original good description exists of ‘Holt’s Mammoth’, so we are at a loss to clarify this problem. ‘Woodcote Farm’ is the most frequently offered sage cultivar for fresh leaves at vegetable counters in the United States. In Great Britain, besides ‘Woodcote Farm’, some other commercial cultivars include ‘ Archers Long Leaf’, ‘Archers Broad Leaf’, ‘Andrews’, ‘Extracta’, ‘Preen 38’, and ‘Wisley’. Additional cultivars with few published descriptions include ‘Emanuel’, ‘Jefferson’, and ‘Wurzburg’.
Important chemistry: The essential oil and dried sage from the Dalmatian coast of the former Yugoslavia and Albania show tremendous variability in the principal components: trace to 47 percent alpha-thujone, 1 to 36 percent beta-thujone, 3 to 38 percent camphor, 4 to 25 percent 1,8-cineole, and trace to 16 percent borneol. Populations from Serbia and Montenegro have 8 to 25 percent alpha-thujone, trace to 25 percent camphor, and 6 to 13 percent 1,8-cineole. An examination of the essential oil of S. officinalis from nine European countries showed 3 to 45 percent 1,8-cineole, 11 to 29 percent camphor, 3 to 24 percent alpha-thujone, and five to 13 percent beta-thujone. A collection identified as var. angustifolia Ten. from Italy showed 39 percent alpha-thujone and 12 percent alpha-humulene. As in rosemary, the antioxidative activity is due to the content of phenolic diterpenes, particularly carnosic acid, carnosol, epirosmanol, isorosmanol, rosmadial, and methyl carnosate. Also, like rosemary, lute-olin, a flavonoid, exhibits antioxidative activity.
apple sage
The specific epithet, which means “bearing apples,” refers to the curious fruitlike, semitransparent insect galls that form on the branches. These agreeably flavored but astringent growths are sometimes candied as sage apples. Apple sage was used for cooking and medicine, along with S. officinalis and S. fruticosa, by the ancient Greeks and Romans, but apple sage does not currently have GRAS status.
The leaves of apple sage are egg-shaped with rounded- to heart-shaped bases, 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) long, wrinkled and densely hairy when young. The violet-blue flowers often have a reddish calyx.
Important chemistry: The essential oil contains 15 to 72 percent alpha-thujone, 7 to 51 percent beta-thujone, and trace to 10 percent 1,8-cineole.
clary sage
French: toute-bonne, sauge sclarée
German: Scharlei, Muskatsalbei
Italian: sclarea, erba moscatella, scanderona, trippa di dama, scarleggia
Spanish: hierba de los ojos, amaro, almaro, salvia romana
The herb’s traditional use for clearing the eyes give it the specific epithet—meaning “clear”—as well as its common name. The seeds are mucilaginous in water and were once used to pick up small particles of dirt from the eyes.
Clary sage imparts a muscatel flavor to alcoholic beverages and is used to flavor wines, vermouths, and liqueurs, so an alternative common name is muscatel sage. The essential oil is widely used in perfumery. Sclareol, an amber-scented compound present as trace to 3 percent of the oil, is isolated from clary sage by hydrocarbon extraction and is useful for tobacco flavoring. The oil of clary sage is GRAS at 1 to 155 ppm. The oil has both anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving action.
Clary sage is a biennial that readily reseeds in the garden. The winter rosette is relatively lacking in fragrance, but the entire inflorescence, rising to 39 inches (1 m) high and bearing white or pink flowers with leafy bracts, has a pronounced cloying, amber/lavender note. Leaves are broadly egg-shaped, heart-shaped at the base, about 3 to 5 inches (8 to 14 cm) long.
The var. turkestanica Mottet has been used to designate forms with long bracts, but the offerings of this variety in the seed trade differ little from normal seed lots of clary sage; seed lots of ‘Vatican’ also differ very little.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of typical clary inflorescences has 14 to 74 percent linalyl acetate, 8 to 32 percent linalool, and 2 to 12 percent alpha-terpineol. The diffusive, onion-like odor of perspiration is from trace amounts of 1-methoxyhexant-3-thiol. A lemon/rose-scented form of clary has also been isolated in Israel; this has 36 to 37 percent geranyl acetate, 16 to 25 percent geraniol, 11 to 19 percent geranial, 8 to 11 percent neral, and 1 to 0 percent germacrene D. Leaves are typically less odorous, being scented with about 68 percent germacrene D.
Salvia sclarea
bluebeard sage
The specific epithet means green, but this is known as bluebeard sage, Joseph sage, red-topped sage, or horminum clary. The sterile bracts, often colored violet, green, pink, or white, are very decorative in the garden. The leaves of bluebeard sage are egg-shaped or parallel-sided, rounded or heart-shaped at the base, blunt at the apex, and 2 inches (5 cm) long. While bluebeard sage is grown today only as an ornamental, it was once used by the Greeks and Romans to flavor wine.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of bluebeard sage contains 29 percent beta-pinene and 15 percent alpha-humulene.
Key:
1. Annual bearing brilliantly colored sterile bracts at the terminus of the branches................. S. viridis
1a. Perennial without sterile bracts....................................................................... 2
2. Leaves usually tri-lobed and velvety...................................................... S. fruticosa
2a. Leaves usually simple and not velvety............................................................. 3
3. Corolla brilliant red..................................................................... S. elegans
3a. Corolla blue, pink, or white, not red............................................................. 4
4. Leaves rounded or heart-shaped at the base................................................. 5
5. Leaves 5 to 8 cm long.......................................................... S. pomifera
5a. Leaves 8 to 18 cm long................................................................... 6
6. Hardy biennial from winter rosette............................................ S. sclarea
6a. Tender shrub............................................................... S. dorisiana
4a. Leaves narrowed to the base................................................................ 7
7. Corolla dark blue-violet; flowers many in compact, crowded clusters.... S. clevelandii
7a. Corolla blue, blue-violet, pink, or white; flowers in five- to ten-flowered clusters.... 8
8. Leaves to 5 cm long, parallel-sided............................... S. lavandulifolia
8a. Leaves 4 to 7.7 cm long, broadly parallel-sided........................ S. officinalis
S. clevelandii (A. Gray) Greene, Pittonia 2:236. 1892.
As mentioned earlier, we do not usually cultivate “pure” S. clevelandii, but rather hybrids with S. leucophylla. The hybrid differs from S. clevelandii in having lavender-blue flowers and branched hairs.
Native country: Cleveland sage is a component of the chaparral of western San Diego County, California, extending down to Baja California.
General habit: Cleveland sage grows about 1 m tall. Branchlets are hairy with backward-directed hairs, ashy.
Leaves: Leaves are 1.5 to 2 cm long, usually widest at the center with the ends equal, blunt at the apex, narrowed to the base with stalks 3 to 6 mm long, margins with rounded small teeth, the upper surfaces puckered, coated with fine hairs, the lower ashy or, especially when young, whitened with minute appressed hairs, with prominent veins.
Flowers: Flowers are many in one to three compact, crowded clusters in remotely interrupted spikes, these evenly branched, subtended by firm egg-shaped bracts shorter than the calyces. Corolla is dark violet-blue.
S. dorisiana Standley, Ceiba 1:43. 1950.
Native country: Peach sage is a native of Honduras.
General habit: Peach sage is a shrub to about 1 to 1.2 m, with long, soft, somewhat wavy hairs, leafy and freely branched.
Leaves: Leaves are egg-shaped, pinched at the tip, heart-shaped at the base with lobes often overlapping, toothed, thinly papery, hairy, gland-dotted below, 7 to 14 × 5 to 10 cm.
Flowers: Inflorescence is showy, glandular; flower cluster two- to ten-flowered; corolla is magenta, with long, soft, somewhat wavy hairs.
S. elegans Vahl, Enum. pl. 1:238. 1804 (S. rutilans Carrière).
Native country: Pineapple sage is native to Mexico.
General habit: Pineapple sage is a shrubby herb, 61 to 120 cm.
Leaves: Leaves are egg-shaped, tapering to the tip, rounded at the base, finely toothed, hairy, 2.5 to 10 cm long.
Flowers: The inflorescence is branched, flower clusters distinct, about six-flowered; corolla is deep crimson to blood red, densely coated with long, soft, straight hairs.
S. fruticosa Mill., Gard. Dict. ed. 8. 1768 (S. triloba L.f.).
Native country: Greek sage is native to the central and eastern Mediterranean region.
General habit: Greek sage is a shrub to about 1 m, white-hairy.
Leaves: Leaves are usually three-lobed, the laterals much smaller than the terminal. Terminal lobe is two to four times longer than wide with the sides parallel tending to egg-shaped, 2 to 5 × 0.75 to 2 cm, wrinkled, lower surface white to velvety with dense, wool-like covering of matted, tangled hairs of medium length.
Flowers: Inflorescence is branched, flower clusters two- to eight-flowered; corolla is bright blue.
S. lavandulifolia Vahl, Enum. pl. 1:222. 1804.
In 1983, De Bolòs and Vigo reclassified the subspecies of S. lavandulifolia into five forms of S. officinalis subsp. lavandulifolia (Vahl) Gams, later publishing subsp. lavandulifolia as a variety [S. officinalis L. var. lavandulifolia (Vahl) O. de Bolòs & J. Vigo, Fl. Païos Catalans 3:342. 1995], but S. lavandulifolia is maintained as a species here, following popular custom.
Native country: Spanish sage is native to central, southern, and eastern Spain, extending slightly into southern France.
General habit: Spanish sage is a small shrub or herb, woody at the base, up to 50 cm high, stems erect or ascending, hairy.
Leaves: Simple leaves are stalked, narrow, narrowly parallel-sided, edged with small rounded teeth, up to 5 cm long, with a dense, wool-like covering of matted, tangled hairs of medium length.
Flowers: Flower clusters six- to eight-flowered; calyx is often reddish purple, hairy, corolla is blue or blue-violet.
S. officinalis L. Sp. pl. 23. 1753.
Native country: Garden or Dalmatian sage is native to northern and central Spain, southern France, and the western part of the Balkan Peninsula but is widely cultivated and naturalized in southern and south-central Europe.
General habit: Garden sage is a shrub to 61 cm high, stems erect, covered with dense, woolly covering of matted, tangled hairs of medium length.
Leaves: Leaves are simple, stalked, parallel-sided, more or less narrowed at the base, ruffled, white-hairy beneath, greenish above, densely hairy when young, 4.1 to 7.7 × 0.9 to 5.0 cm.
Flowers: Flower clusters are five- to ten-flowered; corolla is violet-blue, pink, or white.
S. pomifera L., Sp. pl. 24. 1753 (S. calycina Sibth. & Sm.).
Native country: Apple sage is native to southern Greece and the southern Aegean region.
General habit: Apple sage is a shrub to 1 m, much-branched, short-hoary.
Leaves: Leaves are simple, stalked, egg-shaped, rounded or heart-shaped at the base, 5 to 8 cm long to about 3 cm wide, wrinkled, densely short-hoary when young.
Flowers: Flower clusters two- to four-flowered; calyx is often reddish purple with non-glandular hairs and sessile glands, corolla is violet-blue, the lower lip paler.
S. sclarea L., Sp. pl. 27. 1753.
Native country: Clary sage is native to southern Europe.
General habit: Clary sage is a biennial or short-lived perennial up to 1 m high. Stems are erect, much branched, glandular above.
Leaves: Leaves are simple, stalked, broadly egg-shaped, heart-shaped at base, hairy, about 8 to 14 × 5 to 10 cm.
Flowers: Flower clusters are four- to six-flowered. Bracts exceed the lilac or white corollas. Calyx has spiny teeth, hairy and dotted with glands.
S. viridis L., Sp. pl. 24. 1753 (S. horminum L.).
Native country: Bluebeard sage is native to southern Europe.
General habit: Bluebeard sage is an annual with stems to 50 cm, erect, simple or branched, non-glandular or glandular-hairy.
Leaves: Leaves are simple, stalked, egg-shaped or parallel-sided, rounded or heart-shaped at the base, blunt at the apex, regularly edged with round teeth, hairy, about 5 × 2.5 cm.
Flowers: Flower clusters are four- to eight-flowered. Terminal sterile bracts are usually prominent and violet, green, pink, or white. Corolla is pink or violet.
burnet
Family: Rosaceae
Growth form: herbaceous perennial to about 18 inches (46 cm)
Hardiness: hardy to Zone 5
Light: part to full sun
Water: constantly moist but not wet
Soil: well-drained garden loam rich in organic matter, pH 4.8 to 8.2, average 6.8
Propagation: seeds in fall or spring, 5,000 seeds per ounce (176/g)
Culinary use: salads but not GRAS
Craft use: none
Landscape use: front of herb or vegetable garden
French: grande pimprenelle, pimprenelle commune des prés
German: Pimpinelle, Kölbel, Blutsauge, Kleiner Wiesenknopf, Bibernelle
Dutch: klien sorbenkruid, bloedkruid
Italian: pimpinella, bilbernella, salvastrella, meloncello
Spanish: pimpinela menor
Portuguese: pimpinela
Salad burnet is one of those herbs that can shine in the garden and in the kitchen. As a landscape plant, it possesses unusual accordion-like, dark green leaves. Its lacy, ferny appearance provides texture and contrast in the herb garden. In the kitchen, burnet’s light cucumber-flavored leaves are useful in several ways. In France, the leaves are used for dressings, salads, soups, and sauces, wherever a light cucumber flavor is needed. Burnet’s decorative leaves make it especially useful as a garnish for pâtés and aspics. Burnet makes a good alternative to decorative sprigs of parsley in other dishes, too.
Sanguisorba minor
Burnet is easily grown from seeds planted in fall or spring and will easily reseed (the reseeded plants are often healthier than the original plants). Provide a light, well-drained organic soil in full sun with good moisture retention.
Start cutting one-year-old plants early in spring through early summer. The plant grows to 12 to 18 inches (30 to 46 cm) when flowering but normally exists as a tight rosette of leaves. Flowers are minute and green in small, tight heads; the red stigmas are often visible. To keep the plants vigorous and limit self-seeding, cut the flowers as they appear; they are good to eat but can become fibrous if cut too late.
The genus Sanguisorba includes about 18 species. Some were once believed to have styptic qualities, so the generic name translates to “blood-stauncher.” The specific name translates to “small.”
In spite of centuries of consumption by Europeans, burnet has no GRAS status.
Six subspecies are known, but subsp. minor (Poterium sanguisorba L.) is the burnet of gardens.
S. minor Scop., Fl. Carn. ed. 2. 1:110. 1772.
Native country: Burnet is native to dry grassland and rocky ground, southern, western, and central Europe, extending to southern Sweden and central Russia.
General habit: Burnet is a smooth herb with a well-developed basal rosette of leaves, reaching 30 to 46 cm when flowering.
Leaves: Leaves have three to twelve pairs of globe-shaped to elliptical leaflets; each leaflet is 0.5 to 2 cm, more or less stalked, round-toothed to incised, mostly of equal size.
Flowers: The green flowers are arranged in globose to egg-shaped heads.
Fruits/seeds: The fruits are ridged or winged with pimpled and sculptured faces.
lavender cotton
Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Growth form: perennial subshrub to 2 feet (60 cm)
Hardiness: most hardy to Zone 6
Light: full sun
Water: moist to somewhat dry; can withstand drought when established
Soil: well-drained gravelly or rocky loam
Propagation: layerings or cuttings in summer
Culinary use: none
Craft use: tussy-mussies, potpourri
Landscape use: small, tight hedges, knot gardens
French: petit cyprès, santoline, aurone femelle, garde-robe
German: Heiligenkraut, Cypressenkraut
Dutch: heiligenbloem
Italian: santolina, crespolina
Spanish: abròtano hembra, hierba lombriguera hembra, hierba piojera, santolina, bolina, manzanilla cabezudo
Portuguese: abrotano fêmea, guarda roupa
In the landscape, the compact, short gray lances of Santolina resemble cotton balls, hence the common name “lavender cotton” or “cotton lavender” in England. The lavender cottons were used in culinary and medicinal applications at one time (particularly to rid the body of worms), but none have GRAS status. The fragrance of the plants is penetrating and unusual, and the branches are attractive for Christmas decorations, tussy-mussies, and as additions to potpourris. An old tale suggests that lavender cotton acts as a moth preventive, and the French name, garde-robe, indicates its value in closets (this French name is also applied to southernwood), but we cannot find any research to validate the efficacy of this use. The greatest value of the lavender cottons, however, is in the herb garden as hedges, especially for decorative, intricate hedges that form “knots.”
Santolina chamaecyparissus
Santolina is an example of botanists and horticulturists going about their own merry ways without communication. Names that have proliferated in catalogs and herb books either have been misapplied or have no botanical meaning. Our interpretation is the best that can be done with the existing literature.
Santolina is a genus of about twelve species of subshrubs native to the western Mediterranean region. The generic name was derived from sanctum linum, “holy flax,” an old name for green lavender cotton.
The plant cultivated as gray lavender cotton is actually one self-sterile clone that keys out to S. chamaecyparissus subsp. insularis in E. Guinea and T. G. Tutin’s account in Flora Europaea. The specific name is derived from the Greek word chamai, which means “on the ground,” and a second word, kuparissos, which translates as cypress; insularis refers to Corsica and Sardinia, where this subspecies is common. In the wild, the cultivated clone of gray lavender cotton is very rare, and our clone seems to have originated in the former Yugoslavia, according to Hugh McAllister of the University of Liverpool Botanic Garden, who has introduced other clones of this gray lavender cotton into England and has been able to effect seeds. He now proposes that since Linnaeus’ type specimen (S. chamaecyparissus subsp. chamaecyparissus) is similar to the Sardinian populations, the cultivated Yugoslavian plants should be designated as S. chamaecyparissus subsp. dalmaticum.
The plant cultivated as dwarf lavender cotton (‘Nana’ or ‘Compacta’) occurs in the wild in Majorca and Minorca in the Balearic Islands. This dwarf entity with crisped-branched hairs keys out to S. chamaecyparissus subsp. squarrosa in Flora Europaea. McAllister has proposed that this is actually a separate species, S. magonica. Another, taller-growing lax shrub with long, feathery leaves, bearing numerous lobes, originated in central Italy, and McAllister notes this should be designated as S. neapolitana, the Naples lavender cotton.
The green lavender cotton has usually been designated as S. virens but designated as synonymous with S. viridis, or S. rosmarinifolia in the horticultural literature. Yet S. rosmarinifolia (alias S. viridis) has remote leaf lobes on the juvenile foliage, thus the designation of rosemary-leaved. This species is not hardy north of Zone 8 and is not our green lavender cotton.
What, then, is our green lavender cotton? The green-leaved, almost herbaceous, creamy-white flowered, smooth plants from the Alpi Apuane northeast of Genoa key out to S. chamae cyparissus subsp. tomentosa in Flora Europaea. McAllister has designated these as a separate species, S. pinnata.
A few named cultivars are grown. Here we have tried to describe these and their taxonomic placement.
Cultivar: ‘Edward Bowles’
Origin: Hillier and Sons, England; S. neapolitana
Leaves: gray-green
Flowers: cream-yellow
Cultivar: ‘Lemon Queen’
Origin: S. pinnata
Leaves: green
Flowers: pale yellow
Cultivar: ‘Morning Mist’
Origin: S. rosmarinifolia
Growth: 15 inches (38 cm) tall; tolerant of compacted, wet soils
Leaves: grayish-waxy green
Flowers: yellow
Origin: perhaps S. magonica?
Growth: dwarf
Leaves: gray
Flowers: yellow
Cultivar: ‘Pretty Carroll’
Origin: Carroll Gardens, Westminster, Maryland; S. chamaecyparissus
Leaves: gray
Flowers: yellow
Cultivar: ‘Primrose Gem’
Origin: S. pinnata; probably the same as ‘Lemon Queen’
Leaves: green
Flowers: pale yellow
Cultivar: ‘Sulphurea’
Origin: S. neapolitana
Leaves: similar to ‘Edward Bowles’ but more gray
Flowers: pale primrose yellow
Both the gray and green lavender cottons, no matter what their names, are easily grown in full sun in sandy, well-drained soil. Pythium wilt of the foliage and sudden root wilts are problems that can be avoided with excellent drainage, good air circulation, and neutral to slightly alkaline soil. These subshrubs do best with a hard annual pruning in spring, which allows increased air circulation and permits more sunlight to penetrate the plant. In late summer the white to yellow heads (“rayless daisies”) appear; these can be removed later, but do not prune heavily at this time or the plant may die.
Most of the cultivated material produces few seeds, and the cultivars cannot be seed propagated reliably. Layering stems is the easiest route to increasing your collection of lavender cottons, but rooting summer stem-tip cuttings, although difficult, is reliable if you need many new plants. The grayer the foliage, however, the less the humidity required for rooting, and rooting of gray lavender cotton can be easily accomplished during summer under a 50-percent shade cloth if the humidity is 80 percent or above.
The oil of S. chamaecyparissus has been shown to be anticandidal.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of a plant identified as S. chamaecyparissus subsp. squarrosa from eastern Spain is dominated by 25 percent camphor and 19 percent allo-aroma-dendrene, providing a spicy-camphoraceous odor. French oils of S. chamaecyparissus are dominated by 31 to 34 percent artemisia ketone and 9 to 18 percent beta-phellandrene, providing an odor of annual wormwood (sweet Annie). German and Hungarian oils of S. chamaecyparissus are dominated by 17 percent longiverbenone (vulgarone B), providing a dusty miller–like odor similar to some forms of Artemisia doug-lasiana. The essential oil of plants identified as S. chamaecyparissus from Turkey has 38 perc-cent artemisia ketone, 12 percent camphor, and 9 percent beta-phellandrene with an artemisialike odor. Cultivated plants of S. chamaecyparissus in India have 32 percent artemisia ketone, 16 percent 1,8-cineole, and 15 percent myrcene. Plants identified as S. rosmarinifolia from Bulgaria have 14 percent beta-eudesmol and 13 percent 1,8-cineole in the essential oil of the flower heads, providing a eucalyptus-like odor.
Key:
1. Leaves green to grayish-waxy green, not hairy........................................................ 2
2. Leaves green; flowers whitish.............................................................. S. pinnata
2a. Leaves grayish-waxy green; flowers yellow........................................... S. rosmarinifolia
1a. Leaves gray, finely hairy.............................................................................. 3
3. Leaves feathery in appearance with numerous, long lobes......................... S. neapolitana
3a. Leaves knobby in appearance with short lobes................................................. 4
4. Peg-like lobes of leaves not more than 2 mm, eight to nine per longitudinal row................................................................................................. S. magonica
4a. Peg-like lobes of leaves at least 2.5 mm, nine to fourteen per longitudinal row............................................................................................ S. chamaecyparissus
S. chamaecyparissus L., Sp. pl. 842. 1753 [S. chamaecyparissus L. subsp. insularis (Genn. ex Fiori) Yeo, S. incana Lam.].
The clone in cultivation is S. chamaecyparissus subsp. dalmaticum.
Native country: Gray lavender cotton is native to Sardinia and the former Yugoslavia.
General habit: Gray lavender cotton is an erect to ascending subshrub.
Leaves: Leaves are densely toothed and coated with a dense wool-like covering of matted, tangled hairs of medium length; lobes are more than 2.5 mm long.
Flowers: Head is usually coated with hairs like the leaves. Flowers are yellow.
S. magonica (Bolòs, Molin. & P. Monts.) Romo, Flores Silvestres Baleares 303. 1994.
Native country: Dwarf lavender cotton is native to the Balearic Islands and perhaps North Africa.
General habit: Dwarf lavender cotton is an erect to ascending subshrub.
Leaves: Leaves are smooth to coated with a dense wool-like covering of matted, crisped-branched hairs of medium length; lobes are no more than 2 mm long.
Flowers: Head is usually smooth. Flowers are pale yellow.
S. neapolitana Jord. & Four., Icon. fl. eur. 2:10. 1869.
Native country: Naples lavender cotton is native to central Italy.
General habit: Naples lavender cotton is an erect to ascending subshrub 30 to 61 cm tall and 61 to 91 cm wide.
Leaves: Leaves appear feathery with long numerous lobes and are coated with a dense wool-like covering of matted hairs of medium length.
Flowers: Head is coated with hairs like the leaves. Flowers are yellow.
S. pinnata Viviani, Elench. pl. hort. Dinegro 31. 1802 [S. chamaecyparissus L. subsp. tomentosa (Pers.) Arcangeli, S. ericoides].
Native country: Green lavender cotton is native from the Pyrenees to central Italy.
General habit: Green lavender cotton is an erect or ascending subshrub.
Leaves: Leaves are green and smooth with lobes 2.5 to 7 mm long.
Flowers: Head is usually smooth. Flowers are whitish to pale yellow.
S. rosmarinifolia L., Sp. pl. 842. 1753.
Native country: Rosemary-leaved lavender cotton is native to the Iberian Peninsula and southern France.
General habit: Rosemary-leaved lavender cotton is an erect or ascending subshrub, 35 to 45 cm high.
Leaves: Leaves are grayish-waxy green. Juvenile leaves are erect to erect-deflexed, narrowly linear, tapering to the tip, very shortly and remotely pimpled-toothed to lobed. Adult leaves have closely pressed teeth, the uppermost smooth.
Flowers: Flowers are bright yellow.
sassafras
Family: Lauraceae
Growth form: tree to 66 feet (20 m)
Hardiness: hardy to Maine (Zone 5)
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: well-drained and rich in organic matter
Propagation: seeds in fall
Culinary use: root bark toxic; leaves as flavoring and thickener in soups
Craft use: potpourri
Landscape use: vigorous tree for fall color
French: sassafras
German: Sassafras, Fenchelholz
Dutch: sassafras, venkelhout, zweethout
Italian: sassafraso
Spanish: sasafras
Sassafras is a rapidly growing but short-lived tree found in young forests from the U.S. Midwest to New England to the Deep South. When mature, the tree may reach more than 66 feet (20 m) high. Its fall plumage radiates brilliant orange and crimson. The root bark has the unmistakable aroma of root beer, the leaves have a fatty lemon odor, and the birds are drawn to the small, black, olive-like fruits, which they avidly consume.
Sassafras was apparently a vernacular name used by early European settlers in Florida. The specific name, albidum (“white”), refers to the blue-green smooth-to-hairy undersides of the leaves. Two other species of Sassafr as grow in China, S. tzumu (Hemsley) Hemsley and S. randaiense (Hayata) Rehder.
Sassafras roots and leaves are usually gathered from the wild. If you cultivate sassafras in your garden, start it from seed or transplant seedlings very early before the taproot develops; transplanting later is difficult. Soil should be well drained but rich in organic matter and in full sun.
Sassafras albidum
Sassafras has been a tree of many uses. The tea from the root bark, mixed with milk and sugar, was once consumed as a beverage called saloop, and the root bark was used to brew root beer. The chief constituent of the roots, safrole, has been prohibited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 1960 in foods because it is metabolized to a liver toxin and carcinogen. Yet, sassafras root tea is still sold (the FDA does not have enough time and money to police every farmers’ market) and has many adherents as a “blood-purifier.”
Other health conditions have been tied to sassafras tea; overindulgence (about ten cups a day for an adult) has been linked to a medical condition called diaphoresis that is characterized by profuse sweating with an elevated body temperature. Consumption of as little as 0.17 ounces (5 ml) of sassafras oil may kill an individual or induce vomiting, tachycardia (irregular heartbeat), and tremors. While you may or may not personally accept the toxicity and carcinogenicity of sassafras roots and safrole, you may be sued by someone who becomes ill or develops liver cancer if you sold them or advised the consumption of safrole-rich beverages or foods. Lawyers from the FDA could also be petitioned as a witness for the litigant.
The controversy over the safety of sassafras arises from the long consumption of sassafras root tea by the Appalachian community and because safrole itself is not carcinogenic. However, safrole is metabolized to very active carcinogens in the body on ingestion. Complicating matters in the ban on sassafras tea is that safrole is also present in trace quantities in some spices, such as nutmeg (0.12 to 0.43 percent safrole) and mace (0.43 to 1.99 percent). However, these levels are considered relatively minor, and so the FDA does not prohibit nutmeg and mace; both spices are also consumed daily in beverages and foods at levels below that of routine sassafras root tea drinkers.
The FDA does approve safrole-free extracts of sassafras at 10 to 290 ppm, while the leaves, known as filé, are GRAS at 30,000 ppm. Artificial sassafras oil is safrole-free and relatively safe, based upon wintergreen. Filé, or gumbo filé (from the Choctaw kombo ashish), is used in Cajun cooking, sometimes mixed with other herbs and spices, as a thickener and flavoring in soups and stews. Add the filé at the last few minutes of cooking or else a stringy mass will result (the French filé means thread). The egg-shaped or two- to three-lobed (“mitten-shaped”) leaves may be ground fresh or dried and powdered for later use. Fortunately safrole is either absent or present in only trace levels in sassafras leaves.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of the roots of sassafras contains 74 to 80 percent safrole, providing a warm-spice, woody-floral odor. The essential oil of the leaves has around 30 percent (Z)-nerolidol, 22 percent beta-caryophyllene, and 20 percent linalool, providing a woody-floral, green odor, sometimes with various fatty acids that provide a sour-fatty note. The young twigs of sassafras have an essential oil with around 27 percent limonene, 24 percent linalool, and 16 percent alpha-terpineol, providing a sweet lemony odor.
S. albidum (Nutt.) Nees, Syst. laur. 490. 1836.
Native country: Sassafras is native from southwestern Maine, west to northern Illinois, and south to eastern and central Florida.
General habit: Sassafras is a tree to 20 m.
Leaves: Leaves are egg-shaped to widest at the center with the ends equal, 8 to 18 by 2 to 8 cm, wedge-shaped at the base, unlobed or usually one- to three-lobed (rarely four- to five-lobed), characteristically mitten-shaped, the lobes almost tapering to the apex or blunt. Upper surfaces are bright green, smooth, and blue-green below, sometimes hairy below in southern trees.
Flowers: Flowers are greenish yellow.
Fruits/seeds: Fruits are olive-like, about 1 cm long, borne on bright red, fleshy stalks.
savory
Family: Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Growth form: annuals and perennials, from trailing groundcovers to tiny shrubs
Hardiness: mostly subtropical but some hardy to Zone 6
Light: most full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet; many can withstand drought
Soil: well-drained garden loam, pH 5.6 to 8.2, average 6.8 (S. hortensis); pH 6.5 to 7.0, average 6.7 (S. montana)
Propagation: seeds in spring, 52,000 seeds per ounce (1,834/g) (S. hortensis)
Culinary use: teas; many oregano-scented
Craft use: none
Landscape use: groundcover, front of border, container plant
Satureja was most probably adapted from za’atar, an Arabic name used for all oregano-scented herbs. A mythological yarn claims that Satureja was the herb eaten by satyrs to give them their extraordinary sexual stamina; we cannot promise that effect for humans.
The genus Satureja includes approximately thirty species, but many are moved back and forth among the genera Acinos, Micromeria, Calamintha, and Clinopodium. Most savories are dwarf shrubs adapted to rather sunny, dry sites; the major exception is yerba buena, which is trailing and prefers part shade and somewhat moister soil.
yerba buena, Oregon tea
Spanish: yerba buena
Yerba buena, which translates as “good herb,” is a link to the padres of Spanish California. It conjures visions, as related by Mary Elizabeth Parsons in The Wild Flowers of California, of “long, low, rambling mission buildings of adobe, with their picturesque red-tiled roofs; the flocks and herds tended by gentle shepherds in cowls; and the angelus sounding from those quaint belfries, and vibrating in ever-widening circles over hill and vale.”
The Spanish padres used this herb for medicinal purposes. Further north, in Oregon, yerba buena was used to make a tea; however, it has no GRAS status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Yerba buena has at least five forms with different aromas: a spearmint-scented form, a pennyroyal-scented form, two peppermint-scented forms, and a camphor-scented form.
The round, pale green, aromatic, evergreen leaves on trailing stems grow in dry, open woods throughout California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia; it does not seem to be hardy north of Zone 8b. With solitary small, white flowers in the axils of the leaves, yerba buena is similar to many species of Micro-meria, in which genus it is often classified.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of yerba buena contains 23 to 46 percent camphor, 13 to 22 percent camphene, trace to 52 percent pulegone, trace to 18 percent carvone, trace to 16 percent isomenthone, trace to 15 percent menthone, and trace to 15 percent piperitenone. The composition is greatly influenced by moisture stress, light intensity, day temperature, and herbivory by slugs.
summer savory
French: sarriette des jardins
German: Bohnenkraut
Dutch: ibonenkruid
Italian: satureia, peverella, santoreggia
Spanish: ajedrea de jardin
Portuguese: seguerelha
Swedish: kyndel
Russian: chabyor
Chinese: hsiang po ho
Japanese: saborí
Arabic: nadgh
Savory bespeaks flavor by its name alone, and its oregano-like taste goes well with vegetable dishes, especially beans, as well as stuffings, sausages, and other meats. As noted by the epithet hortensis, or “of the garden,” this is the preferred savory for culinary purposes. Summer savory is used commercially in the formulation of vermouths and bitters, sauces, soups, and prepared meats. The essential oil and oleoresin of summer savory are considered GRAS at 4 to 373 ppm; the leaf is GRAS at 200 to 5,190 ppm. Summer savory has been demonstrated to be antibacterial and antifungal, probably from the high concentrations of carvacrol and thymol, two phenols. Summer savory is also antioxidant.
Satureja hortensis
One seed line, ‘Saturn’, with 41 percent gamma-terpinene and 39 percent carvacrol, has been registered in Poland. H. J. Hannig, K. P. Svoboda, and R. I. Greenaway discuss ten native seed lines (‘Aromata’, ‘Budakalászi’, ‘Classic’, ‘Compacta’, ‘Einjähriges Blatt’, ‘Lozenka’, ‘Mestina’, ‘Pikanta’, ‘Saturn’, and ‘SAT 10/97’) with 38 to 48 percent carvacrol.
The seeds of this annual may be sown in April and will germinate in two to three weeks. Seeds older than one year quickly lose their viability. Light is necessary for germination, so sow the seeds shallowly. For best growth and development, thin plants to about 6 inches apart. This 18-inch herb has narrow, dark green leaves with light pink flowers. Summer savory grows rapidly and young, tender shoot tips may be harvested when the plant reaches 6 inches in height; this serves two purposes: to slow flower production and to encourage branching. As the season progresses, the plant may be harvested regularly to retard flowering. Before the first autumn freeze, the entire plant may be cut for drying. Freezing may also preserve the fresh leaves.
The commercial summer savory is commonly adulterated with S. montana (winter savory) and Thymbra spicata.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of summer savory contains 24 to 63 percent carvacrol and trace to 53 percent gamma-terpinene, providing an oregano-like odor. Wild S. hortensis is often scented of thyme from 29 to 43 percent thymol.
winter savory
French: sarriette des montagnes
German: Winterbohnenkraut, Guisopillo
Italian: santoreggia invernale
Spanish: hisopillo
Winter savory is a perennial plant of the high country (hence, its epithet) of southern Europe, hardy to at least Zone 6. Its perennial nature along with smaller, paler green leaves, white flowers, and lower stature set it apart from its annual relative, summer savory.
Winter savory is used in similar fashion to summer savory. The essential oil of winter savory is considered GRAS at 4 to 50 ppm; the oleoresin is GRAS at 4 to 127 ppm. Winter savory has been demonstrated to be antibacterial and antifungal, primarily from the content of carvacrol and thymol, two phenols. The essential oil of winter savory may also be useful in treating ascosphaerosis of honeybees.
A low-growing dwarf winter savory is often listed as S. repanda or S. spicigera in popular herb books, but in all botanical revisions and floras this appears to be a dwarf variant of S. montana subsp. montana. It is probably S. montana subsp. montana var. prostrata Boiss. (Voy. bot. Espagne 495. 1841), which is native to the mountains of Spain. Dwarf winter savory is appropriate for the rock garden.
Satureja montana
Important chemistry: The essential oil of S. montana subsp. montana, typical winter savory, has trace to 68 percent carvacrol, trace to 61 percent thymol, trace to 47 percent para-cymene, trace to 23 percent gamma-terpinene, and trace to 20 percent 1,8-cineole, providing an oregano/thyme-like odor. Local populations in the Balkans include a p-cymene-type (15 to 48 percent p-cymene, 5 to 21 percent borneol, trace to 21 percent trans-sabinene hydrate, trace to 14 percent gamma-terpinene), a trans-sabinene hydrate-type (14 to 27 percent trans-sabinene hydrate, trace to 19 percent p-cymene, 4 to 14 percent terpinen-4-ol), a linalool-type (8 to 74 percent linalool, 2 to 18 percent borneol, trace to 12 percent terpinen-4-ol), a borneol-type (22 to 30 percent borneol, 3 to 29 percent p- cymene), a p-cymen-8-ol-type (11 to 27 percent p-cymen-8-ol, 2 to 19 percent p-cymene, trace to 16 percent linalool, 2 to 14 percent limonene, trace to 11 percent thymol), and a carvacrol/thymol type (5 to 52 percent carvacrol, 3 to 45 percent thymol, and 4 to 26 percent p-cymene).
atar rumi
Arabic: za’atar rumi, za’atar franji
Greek: throumbi, thymbri, thymbros, thrymbi, thryvi, throumba, thryba
Thymbra was the Greek name for this plant. The Arabic name za’atar rumi means “Roman hyssop,” while za’atar franji means “European hyssop.” This species exists in both thyme- and oregano-scented forms and has been used as a substitute for both herbs.
This savory is a small, woody perennial with small whorls of tiny, egg-shaped leaves and clusters of pink flowers at narrow intervals. Za’atar rumi does not seem to be hardy north of Zone 9, so it is best cultivated in pots.
Za’atar rumi is antibacterial and antifungal from the high content of thymol and carvacrol, two phenols. It is also antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of za’atar rumi has trace to 66 percent thymol, 3 to 49 percent carvacrol, 10 to 46 percent gamma-terpinene, and 8 to 35 percent para-cymene, providing an oregano/thyme-like odor.
Key:
1. Plant trailing; leaves egg-shaped............................................................ S. douglasii
1a. Plant upright; leaves linear to inversely egg-shaped................................................... 2
2. Annual; at least the lower calyx-teeth much longer than the tube........................ S. hortensis
2a. Dwarf shrub or perennial woody herb; calyx-teeth shorter than to slightly longer than tube........ 3
3. Small bracts numerous, oblong or lance-shaped, about as long as the calyx............ S. thymbra
3a. Small bracts absent or short, rarely a few almost as long as calyx...................... S. montana
S. douglasii (Benth.) Briq. in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 4(3A):300. 1896 [Micromeria chamissonis (Benth.) Greene, M. douglasii (Benth.) Benth.].
Native country: Yerba buena is found in dry brushy tracts and open woods from Vancouver Island to Los Angeles County, California.
General habit: Yerba buena is a trailing perennial herb with stems 30 to 122 cm long.
Leaves: Leaves are opposite, short-stalked, egg-shaped, round-toothed, green above, purple beneath.
Flowers: Flowers, which appear in the axils of the leaves, are solitary, small, and white.
S. hortensis L., Sp. pl. 568. 1753.
Native country: Summer savory is native to the Mediterranean region.
General habit: Summer savory is an annual herb, slightly hairy, 10 to 25 cm high.
Leaves: Leaves are 10 to 40 by 1 to 5 mm, linear or linear-lance-shaped, blunt at the apex.
Flowers: Flowers are pink or lavender in two to five-flowered clusters.
S. montana L., Sp. pl. 568. 1753.
Winter savory, according to P. W. Ball and F. M. Getliffe, includes five subspecies in Europe, but only subsp. montana is economically important:
subsp. montana
subsp. variegata (Host) P. W. Ball, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 65:352. 1972.
subsp. illyrica Nyman, Consp. fl. eur. 591. 1881.
subsp. kitaibelii (Wierzb.) P. W. Ball, Bot. J. L. Soc. 65:332. 1972.
subsp. taurica (Velen.) P. W. Ball, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 65:352. 1972.
Native country: Winter savory is native to southern Europe.
General habit: Winter savory is a perennial woody herb 10 to 70 cm high, smooth or slightly hairy.
Leaves: Leaves are 5 to 30 by 1 to 7 mm, linear to lance-shaped with narrowed bases, usually tapering to the apex.
Flowers: Flowers are white to pale pink in clusters of up to fourteen.
S. thymbra L., Sp. pl. 567. 1753.
Native country: Za’atar rumi is native to the southern Aegean region to the eastern Mediterrranean.
General habit: Za’atar rumi is a much-branched, usually gray-hairy dwarf shrub 20 to 35 cm tall.
Leaves: Leaves are 5 to 20 by 1 to 9 mm, two to four times longer than wide and the sides parallel or nearly so to inversely egg-shaped, tapering to the apex.
Flowers: Flowers are bright pink or reddish purple.
sesame
Family: Pedaliaceae
Growth form: annual to 4 feet (1.2 m)
Hardiness: cannot withstand frost
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: well-drained garden loam with near-neutral pH
Propagation: seeds in spring, 10,200 seeds per ounce (360/g)
Culinary use: oil, seeds for breads
Craft use: none
Landscape use: vegetable garden
French: sésame
German: Sesamstrauch
Dutch: sesamstruik
Italian: sesamo, ginggiolena
Spanish: sésamo, ajonjolí, alegría
Portuguese: gergelim
Swedish: sesam
Russian: kunzhut
Chinese: hu-ma, ch’ing-jang
Japanese: goma
Arabic: simsim
Sesame, alias gingelly, jingili, or benné, is cultivated for its oil or for its edible seeds. The seeds have about 45 to 63 percent oil and 25 percent protein. Records of sesame cultivation go back to the Tigris and Euphrates valleys of 1600 B.C.E. and even further to Harappa (c. 3500–3050 B.C.E.). Biochemical evidence further supports an origin in India, possibly S. latifolium J. B. Gillett × S. radiatum Schumach. & Thonn. We also know that sesame seed was pressed for its oil in the empire of Urartu (now Armenia) about 900 to 700 B.C.E. Today India and China are the world’s largest producers of sesame. The United States also produces sesame; its cultivation is centered around Paris, Texas.
Sesame is a rough, hairy, gummy annual plant to 2.6 feet (80 cm) high with linear, lance-shaped leaves to 4 inches (10 cm) long. The pale or rose-colored flowers are followed by black or white seeds, which are tiny but sweet and oily. The seeds are commonly used to flavor breads, and the oil is used in baking. Sesame seeds may be eaten raw or roasted; the temperature for roasting to achieve the best flavor is around 392°F (200°C) for a few minutes until lightly browned on the edges. Sesame seeds are considered GRAS, although some people have demonstrated a life-threatening allergy to sesame seeds. Sesamin, a lignan from sesame oil, is antihypertensive. Sesame oil may also be protective against hepatotoxicity. Sesame oil also has a synergistic effect with some insecticides, particularly pyrethrins, due to the content of sesamolin.
Sesamum orientale
The genus Sesamum includes about fifteen species of the Old World and South Africa. The generic name is derived from a Semitic word similar to the Egyptian sesemt; this is mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus of about 1500 B.C.E.
Commercial varieties of sesame require 90 to 120 frost-free days; the home gardener on the margins of cultivation can start transplants earlier to speed the process. Sesame should not be planted before the soil reaches a temperature of 70°F (21°C). Sesame can be directly seeded at 250,000 to 300,000 plants per acre in 18- to 30-inch (46 to 76 cm) rows for highest yields. Because of slow early growth, sesame is a poor competitor against weeds. Select fields with low weeds and cultivate very shallowly in order to avoid injury to the surface roots. Daytime temperatures of 77 to 80°F (25 to 27°C) are optimal for cultivation.
Sesame has an extensive root system and is very drought tolerant, but it requires adequate moisture for germination and early growth. A minimum rainfall of 20 to 26 inches (51 to 66 cm) during the growing season is required for reasonable yields. Rainfall late in the season prolongs growth and increases loss due to shattering.
The best soils for sesame growth are well-drained, fertile soils of medium texture and neutral pH. Increased levels of nitrogen result in increased protein and decreased oil content, while potassium demonstrates a similar, but smaller response; phosphorous alone has no effect on protein or oil content.
Sesame is ready for harvesting 90 to 150 days after planting. As the seed pods ripen, the long pockets split and release the seeds (“open sesame”). Because of shattering problems, the discovery of non-shattering sesame in 1943 was an innovation toward the development of high yielding, shatter-resistant varieties that can be mechanically harvested. Yields of 1,000 to 2,300 pounds per acre (1,207 to 2,577 kg/ha) are generally expected.
Important chemistry: Sesame oil, which contains about 47 percent oleic acid and 39 percent linoleic acid, stores well because of a natural antioxidant, sesamol. The flavor components of the seed oil are primarily 9 to 17 percent 2-methylpyrazine, 0 to 6 percent furfuryl alcohol, 5 to 15 percent 2,5-dimethylpyrazine, and 0 to 3 percent pyrrole. The most important odorants in roasted black and white sesame seeds are (E,E)-2,4-decadienal, 2-methoxyphenol, 2-pentylpyridine, 2-furfurylthiol, 2-ethyl-3,5-dimethylpyrazine, 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone, and 2-phenylethylthiol. These flavor chemicals provide a green pepper–baked bread-like odor.
S. orientale L., Sp. pl. 634. 1753 (S. indicum L.).
Native country: Sesame is probably native to Southeast Asia but naturalized in southeastern Europe.
General habit: Sesame is an erect, hairy annual 30 to 80 cm high, simple or with branches.
Leaves: Leaves are about 10 cm long, stalked, the lower usually lobed or divided into threes, opposite, the upper oblong to linear-lance-shaped, smooth-edged, alternate.
Flowers: Flowers are white, often with purplish or yellow markings, about 3 cm long, in the axils of the leaves.
Fruits/seeds: Fruits are 25 by 5 mm pockets, oblong, erect, rough. Seeds may be whitish or black.
sinapis
Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)
Growth form: annuals to about 32 inches (80 cm)
Hardiness: withstands frost
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: good garden loam, pH 4.5 to 8.2, average 6.6 (S. alba)
Propagation: seeds in spring, 15,000 seeds per ounce (535/g) (S. alba)
Culinary use: mustards
Craft use: none
Landscape use: wildflower garden
Yellow mustard and charlock resemble brown mustard and black mustard, species of the genus Brassica (which see), but yet are sufficiently different to warrant a separate genus. This is reflected in the Greek name, sinapi (“cabbage”), which is said to be derived from nap, Celtic for plants resembling cabbage or turnip. The genus Sinapis includes about ten species of Europe.
While these plants are raised commercially for their seeds, they are not often cultivated by the home gardener because of the work involved. With the advent of novel homemade mustards, however, we may see more small-scale cultivation.
yellow mustard
French: moutarde blanche (jaune, anglaise)
German: Weisser (Gelber) Senf
Dutch: witte (gele) mosterd
Italian: sanape bianca, rucherttone
Spanish: mostaza blanca, jenabe, jenable
Portuguese: mostarda branca
Swedish: vit senap
Russian: gorchitsa byepaya
Chinese: pai-chieh
Japanese: karashi
Arabic: khardal
In English this is also known as white mustard (and the specific epithet means white). Yellow mustard provides a sharp taste distinct from that of brown or Oriental mustard (see Brassica). Seeds of Sinapis alba are listed as GRAS at 20 to 124,274 ppm, while the essential oil is GRAS at 201 ppm.
For culture, see Brassica juncea var. juncea. Yield of yellow mustard is about 800 pounds per acre (897 kg/ha). Under relatively cold conditions with a day/night rhythm rising from 64.4/48.2°F at seed planting to 75.2/57.2°F at seed formation (18/9°C to 24/14°C), the yield of seeds per plant may be up to 78 percent higher. Commercial sources are the same as for B. juncea var. juncea.
Important chemistry: In the presence of water, sinalbin (sinapine p-hydroxybenzyl glucosinolate) is acted upon by myrosinase to liberate 2 to 4 percent p-hydroxybenzyl isothiocyanate, a non-volatile isothiocyanate. The essential oil of the leafy tops is dominated by 53 percent thymol and 27 percent linalool, providing a thyme/lavender odor.
charlock
French: moutarde sauvage, moutarde des champs, sénève German: Acker-Senf
Dutch: herik
Italian: senapa salvatica, senape arvense, serafini
Spanish: mostaza negra, jenable, jenabe
Portuguese: mostarda dos campos
In English, charlock is also known as wild mustard or corn mustard. Seeds of charlock have been used to prepare poor quality mustard, and the active constituents are similar to S. alba. Charlock is sometimes cultivated as an oil crop or vegetable but may become a serious weed (aptly illustrated by the specific epithet, which means “of cultivated land”). For culture, see Brassica juncea var. juncea. Limited production of charlock occurs in the former Soviet Union, France, Hungary, and Romania, but not at levels of commercial significance.
Sinapis arvensis
Key:
1. Surface of long capsules smooth or at most only finely hairy or with a very few falling prematurely fine erect points; eight to seventeen small seeds, not much exceeding 1 mm thick................ S. arvensis
1a. Surface of long capsules bristly-hairy; four to eight large seeds, often exceeding 2 mm thick...... S. alba
S. alba L., Sp. pl. 668. 1753.
Native country: Yellow mustard is an annual herb native to the Mediterranean region.
General habit: Stems are up to 80 cm tall, usually with stiff, deflexed hairs, sometimes smooth.
Leaves: Leaves are usually with stiff and rigid bristles (hispid) but not rough to the touch, all stalked.
Flowers: Flowers are yellow, stalked, on many short stems.
Fruit/seeds: Long capsules are 20 to 40 by 3 to 6.5 mm. Seeds are about 3 mm in diameter, flattened laterally, usually a pale straw color but sometimes with a slight pinkish cast.
S. arvensis L., Sp. pl. 668. 1753 [S. orientalis L., S. kaber DC., B. kaber (DC.) Wheeler, B. arvensis (L.), Rabenh.].
Native country: Charlock is an annual herb native to the Mediterranean region but naturalized throughout Europe.
General habit: Stems grow to 80 cm high, with stiff and rigid bristles at least below, sometimes smooth.
Leaves: Leaves are up to 20 cm long, usually with stiff and rigid bristles; lower stalked, lobed, with a large, coarsely toothed terminal lobe, usually with several smaller lateral lobes; upper leaves are not stalked, usually simple, lance-shaped.
Flowers: Flowers are yellow, small.
Fruit/seeds: Long capsules are 25 to 55 by 1.5 to 4 mm. Seeds are reddish brown or black.
sweet goldenrod
Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Growth form: perennial to 5 feet (160 cm)
Hardiness: hardy to New Hampshire (Zone 5)
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: sandy, acid soil preferred
Propagation: seeds or divisions of clumps in spring
Culinary use: limited (not GRAS)
Craft use: potpourri, dye
Landscape use: rear of perennial border, meadow gardens
On 24 June 1996, Governor Thomas Carper signed Senate Bill No. 364 proclaiming sweet goldenrod as the State Herb of Delaware. Delaware thus became the first state in the Union to designate an herb in this manner.
Sweet goldenrod, alias Texas goldenrod, licorice goldenrod, Blue Mountain tea, or fragrant goldenrod, smells and looks like French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus ‘Sativa’) but without that characteristic full, warm, herbaceous odor. After the Boston Tea Party in 1773, the colonists substituted a Liberty tea composed of equal parts of sweet goldenrod, betony, red clover, and New Jersey tea (Ceanothus americanus L.). By 1816, according to nineteenth-century botanist Frederick Pursh, sweet goldenrod became an article of export to China, fetching a high price. The oil extracted from sweet goldenrod was listed as official in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia from 1820 to 1882 and it was once raised commercially in Texas for its oil, but today sweet goldenrod is not considered GRAS. If it were more commercially available, its primary use would now be in perfumes of the fougère type, chypres, moss, and so on, or in trace amounts in lilac, muguet, and similar scents. Try it in potpourri! Sweet goldenrod, like other goldenrods, can also be used as a dye herb.
Solidago odora
The genus Solidago includes about 100 species primarily in North America with a few in South America and Eurasia. The generic name is derived from the Latin solido, “to make whole,” an allusion to its reputed healing qualities.
Sweet goldenrod is a short-lived herbaceous perennial easily raised in full sun and very sandy, slightly acid soil. Under favorable conditions, it readily reseeds but never to the extent of becoming weedy. It would be excellent in wildflower mixtures, and the golden yellow flowers from July to September blend well in the border with plants like the beebalms (Monarda spp.). The erect, often sprawling stems of sweet goldenrod, up to 5 feet (160 cm) tall, bear long linear leaves up to 4 inches (11 cm) long and dotted with glandular dots that are visible when held to the light.
Cases of livestock deaths from consuming sweet goldenrod have been reported, but the culprit seems to be a rust fungus (Colesporium asterum) that sometimes grows on the foliage, not the herb itself. This rust is widespread in the northern hemisphere and also infects other members of the aster family; it requires two hosts to complete its life cycle and uses pine trees as the alternate host. Hence, cultivation should be as separate as possible from other composite flowers and pine trees.
Goldenrods have come into vogue for the fall perennial border with their many forms, from short to tall, most with golden yellow flowers. Most other species have no herbal uses.
No discussion of goldenrods would be complete without tackling the great myth that they cause hay fever. Goldenrod pollen does not cause allergic reactions, but the belief that goldenrods cause hay fever is tenacious. This mistaken belief probably started because goldenrod’s bright flowers stand out in the late summer weedscape, but the real culprits are the greenish brown ragweeds (Ambrosia spp.) that bloom at the same time. The ragweeds have light, airborne pollen that is easily inhaled by the hapless allergic individual, while goldenrods have heavy, insect-borne pollen. Well, you might be able to induce an allergic response by stuffing the flowers up your nose, but you could do the same thing with many other flowers.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of sweet goldenrod is dominated by about 71 to 75 percent estragole (methyl chavicol) and about 12 percent myrcene, providing a characteristic tarragon-like odor. A “scentless” form, f. inodora Gray, has also been described with about 31 percent myrcene, 27 percent limonene, and 13 percent (E)-methyl isoeugenol
S. odora Aiton, Hort. kew. 3:214. 1789.
Native country: Sweet goldenrod is native to dry, open woods, especially in sandy soil, from Massachusetts and New Hampshire and Vermont to southern Ohio and southern Missouri, south to Florida and Texas.
General habit: Sweet goldenrod is an herbaceous perennial with 60 to 160 cm stems arising from a stout, persistent, woody base.
Leaves: Leaves are 4 to 11 cm long by 0.5 to 2 cm wide, stalkless, smooth, smooth-edged, finely dotted with glandular dots, not prominently veined.
Flowers: Flowers are golden yellow in a branched inflorescence with the younger flowers at the center.
Paraguayan sweet herb, stevia
Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Growth form: shrubby perennial to 18 inches (45 cm)
Hardiness: hardy only to Zone 9
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: well-drained garden loam
Propagation: cuttings in summer
Culinary use: sweetener but limited (not GRAS)
Craft use: none
Landscape use: container plant
The leaves of S. rebaudiana have been known to the Guarani Indians of Paraguay as kaá hâ-é, caá-êhé, caá-hê-hê, caá-enhem, azucá-caá, eiracaa, or ca-a-yupe, all loosely translated as “sweet herb,” and used for centuries as a sweetener for bitter drinks such as maté (Ilex paraguariensis St.-Hil.); it is also called sugar grass or yerbe dulce. In 1931 M. Bridel and R. Lavieille of France discovered a sweet diterpenic glycoside that they termed stevioside (a.k.a. stevin or eupatorin). While some species of Stevia have sweet leaves, no other species of Stevia seems to possess such intensely sweet leaves (but stevioside also occurs in the leaves of a raspberry, Rubus suavissimus S. Lee).
Stevioside is 100 to 300 times more sweet than sucrose, non-caloric, anticariogenic (inhibits tooth decay), non-fermentable, does not darken upon cooking, and is highly stable when exposed to both acids and heat. Stevioside has a detectable taste at a threshold of 0.002 percent, but large amounts of the leaves taste bitter. Stevioside is used as a sweetener in Japan, China, Korea, Israel, Brazil, and Paraguay. In Japan, stevia extracts and stevioside are used to sweeten Japanese-style pickles, dried sea foods, fish, meat pastes, soy sauce, and bean paste products, fruit-flavored drinks, and other beverages, and dessert items, such as ice cream and chewing gum. In the United States, leaves of S. rebaudiana have been used to flavor herbal teas.
The discovery of the Paraguayan sweet herb was revealed to the world by Moisés Santiago Bertoni, a scientist in Paraguay. He first published it in 1899 as a species of Eupatorium, to which it is very similar, later changing it to a species of Stevia in 1905. Overall, the flowering plant has the appearance of a small white-flowering boneset with papery leaves that may reach 2 inches (5 cm) long. The genus Stevia includes about 120 to 300 tropical and subtropical species of the New World and was named after P. J. Esteve, a botanist of Valencia, Spain; rebaudiana was coined to honor the Paraguayan chemist Ovidio Rebaudi.
Stevia rebaudiana
Stevioside is passed through the human digestive system apparently unaltered and does not appear to be toxic to guinea pigs, rabbits, or chickens. Stevioside is not mutagenic or teratogenic, and no indications exist that stevioside causes cancer in humans. In experiments with rats, stevioside produced no significant changes in blood glucose or liver glycogen levels and did not change the relative sizes of the liver, thyroid gland, or adrenal gland with a normal diet; stevioside with a high carbohydrate diet in rats produced a significant decrease in liver glycogen. Chronic administration of an aqueous extract, though, induced systemic and renal widening of the blood vessels, causing abnormally low blood pressure, diuresis (increased urination), and natriuresis (excretion of greater than normal amounts of sodium in the urine). Prenatal exposure to stevioside is not toxic for the chicken embryo. No allergic reactions have been reported. A study done on tolerability of oral stevioside in hyperlipidemic patients found that stevia was safe.
Stevia may actually be beneficial for your health. A number of studies have focused on its antidiabetic activity in both rats and humans. A study done in China found that stevia should be considered as a supplemental therapy for patients with hypertension. Stevia may also be anti-carcinogenic and antibacterial.
Blood pressure, respiration, cardiogram, and body temperature of rabbits are unaffected by stevioside. One report showed a slight contraceptive effect of leaf extracts in female rats, but this has not been confirmed, and tests for anti-androgenic activity were negative. Despite such scientific documentation, in May 1991 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an import alert on S. rebaudiana, and the herb has mysteriously failed to achieve GRAS status despite repeated attempts from American Herbal Products Association (AHPA). In September 1995, the FDA lifted the import alert on S. rebaudiana; the herb can be imported only as a “dietary supplement,” not as a sweetener! However, now the big companies have discovered stevia; Cargill and Coca-Cola are poised to produce the stevia derivative Truvia, and Corn Products International is readying its Enliten.
Why does S. rebaudiana produce stevioside? Experiments with herbivorous insects have concluded that stevioside is an antifeedent: many insects would rather face starvation than eat the leaves. Stevioside also has growth-regulating properties similar to gibberellin in some plants.
Paraguayan sweet herb is easily cultivated in pots or good garden loam in full sun. Since this species is normally found in moist to wet areas, it does not stand drought well. Seeds may be set after flowering in late fall to early winter, but these inevitably fail to germinate. Propagation is best from cuttings during active growth in summer. Harvesting of leaves should be on a sunny, dry day and then the leaves rapidly dried to a moisture content of 15 to 20 percent in a oven at 158°F (70°C) or by sun drying; leaves should be subsequently kept dry. Most of the commercial culture today is done in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, where several products from S. rebaudiana are sold: crude extract (about 20 percent stevioside), crude product (about 50 percent stevioside), stevioside (about 95 percent stevioside), Stevix (50 to 90 percent steviosides, rebaudiosides, etc.), and Steviosin (greater than 95 percent stevioside).
The content of sweet compounds in leaf tissue can vary by method of propagation, day length, and agronomic practices. Canadian researchers found that plants spaced 12 inches (30 cm) apart in rows 12 inches (30 cm) apart yielded 2,677 pounds per acre (3,000 kg/ha) of leaves with a stevioside content of 10.5 percent or 281 pounds per acre (315 kg/ha). If stevio-side is estimated to be 210 times sweeter than sucrose, this yield of stevioside is equivalent to 29 tons of sugar per acre (66.2 tons/ha)!
Important chemistry: The leaves of S. rebaudiana are characterized by eight different ent-kaurene glycosides with sweetening properties. The four major ones are stevioside, rebaudioside A, rebaudioside C, and dulcoside A with sweetness relative to sucrose 100 to 300, 242 to 450, 30 to 120, and 40 to 120, respectively. Stevioside comprises 6 to 20 percent of the dried leaves and about 4 percent of the dried flowers of S. rebaudiana, and upon hydrolysis yields three moles of D-glucose to one mole of steviol. Other sweet diterpene glycosides include rebaudioside B, rebaudioside D, rebaudioside E, and steviolbioside with sweetness relative to sucrose 300 to 350, 200 to 300, 250 to 300, and 100 to 125, respectively.
The essential oil is characterized by 0 to 23 percent spathulenol I, 6 to 20 percent caryophyllene oxide, 1 to 12 percent beta-caryophyllene, 0 to 12 percent beta-cubebene, 0 to 12 percent gamma-elemene, and trace to 11 percent trans-beta-farnesene, providing a light green-flowery fragrance.
S. rebaudiana (Bertoni) Bertoni, Anales Ci. Parag. Ser. I, 5:1. 1905 [Eupatorium rebaudianum Bertoni, S. rebaudiana (Bertoni) Hemsl.].
Native country: The Paraguayan sweet herb is native to edges of marshes and grassland communities on soils with shallow water tables in northeastern Paraguay and bordering Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil.
General habit: The Paraguayan sweet herb is a shrubby perennial herb to 45 cm.
Leaves: Leaves are opposite, sessile, lance-oblong to spoon-shaped, blunt-tipped, lightly toothed above the middle, toothless on the narrowed base, with a papery texture, three-nerved, 3 to 5 cm long.
Flowers: White flowers have a purple throat.
Fruit/seeds: The brown fruit is a bristly achene.
Mexican tarragon
Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Growth form: herbaceous perennial to 310 inches (80 cm)
Hardiness: marginally hardy to Zone 7b
Light: full sun
Water: constant moisture but not wet
Soil: well-drained garden loam
Propagation: cuttings throughout summer
Culinary use: has been substituted for French tarragon but not GRAS
Craft use: none
Landscape use: mid-border or container plant
Spanish: pericon, Santa Maria, anisillo
Annual marigolds have been popular for so long with the general public that they have become a landscape cliché in America. These familiar, bright flowers in yellows and oranges are mostly the product of selection from the African marigold (T. erecta L.) and the French marigold (T. patula L.), and their pungent foliage (“stink flowers” is a common name) does not endear them to many gardeners. Mexican tarragon (also called sweet marigold or sweet mace) has an entirely different aroma, superficially similar to French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus ‘Sativa’) but without the full, warm herbaceous odor of that classic herb of haute cuisine. The flowers of Mexican tarragon, unlike its flamboyant bedding plant cousins, are small enough to be overlooked and appear in late fall. However, in warm climates with high rainfall or high summer humidity (such as southern U.S. Gulf Coastal states), where French tarragon is difficult to impossible to grow because of its susceptibility to diseases, Mexican tarragon is often grown as a substitute. Unfortunately, while the essential oils of African and French marigolds (and T. minuta L.) have GRAS status, Mexican tarragon lacks this critical legal classification. Yet, this has not halted its entry into supermarkets, where it is sometimes sold as “winter tarragon” or “Texas tarragon.”
Tagetes lucida
The genus Tagetes includes about forty-two species of tropical America from southwestern United States to Argentina with the greatest diversity in south and central Mexico. The generic name is derived from the name of an Etruscan deity, Tages, said to have sprung from the earth as it was being plowed.
Mexican tarragon, sometimes called Mexican mint marigold in the herb trade, is a perennial with smooth, toothed, egg-lance-shaped leaves to 4 inches (10 cm) long. Plants raised under optimum conditions can reach 310 inches (80 cm) high, but pot-grown plants or plants grown in the ground in temperate areas normally do not reach more than 18 to 24 inches (46 to 61 cm). The small, golden orange-yellow marigold flowers appear in very late fall just before frost in the northeastern United States.
Mexican tarragon, under the Nahuantl names yahutli or tumutsáli, is one of the ingredients in a mixture smoked by Huichal Indians in Mexico. In many parts of Latin America today, sweet marigold is used to brew a tea. Crude and semipurified extracts of T. lucida have been demonstrated to have an anticholinergic activity and may thus have usefulness as a remedy for several muscular problems. An aqueous leaf sample was also demonstrated to block spontaneous uterus contractability in rats in the laboratory, supporting its postpartum folk use in Mexico. Mexican tarragon is antifungal and antibacterial.
Propagation of Mexican tarragon is easy from cuttings, and branches near the base often have adventitious roots already formed and can be broken off and planted. Seed is difficult to find and often slow to germinate, perhaps because of poor storage practices. Plants may be grown in pots, where a soilless growing medium works well, or in the garden with good, friable, well-drained soil in full sun. This herb is marginally hardy in Zone 7, where, in an average winter, about 25 percent of the plants will be lost; it should be fully hardy in Zone 8. While French tarragon droops under summer heat, Mexican tarragon luxuriates under high temperatures; keep the moisture constant, however, to prevent wilting from water stress.
Several other species of Tagetes, such as T. lemmonii Gray, are sometimes used by Tex-Mex cooks. Irish lace, T. filifolia Lag., primarily grown as an ornamental, has an odor of anise and French tarragon, with small, white, marigold blossoms. Tagetes minuta L. (sometimes called Mexican marigold) is a tall marigold (up to 12 feet, 3.7 m, in a season) with tiny flowers in clusters in the fall. It is used in South America for tea or a pesto-like sauce prepared from its aromatic leaves with peanut oil and hot peppers to serve on vegetables, especially potatoes.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of T. lucida is dominated by 34 to 90 percent estragole (methyl chavicol) with 0 to 24 percent (E)-anethole and trace to 24 percent methyl eugenol.
Two subspecies are recorded, but the plant under cultivation is usually T. lucida subsp. lucida.
T. lucida Cav., Icon. 3. 1794.
Native country: Mexican tarragon is native to rocky, wooded slopes, disturbed roadsides, and agricultural areas in Mexico, from Sonora south into Chiapas, and infrequently in Guatemala, from 1,100 to 4,100 m.
General habit: Mexican tarragon is an erect and nearly smooth perennial 30 to 80 cm high with a short, thick base.
Leaves: Leaves are egg-lance-shaped, extremely variable in size, 2 to 10 by 0.5 to 2 cm, finely toothed, often with elongate bristle tips on the lower teeth.
Flowers: Blooms with heads of golden orange-yellow flowers.
tanacetum
Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Growth form: herbaceous perennials to 4 to 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5 m)
Hardiness: hardy to Nova Scotia and Quebec (at least Zone 4)
Light: full sun
Water: not constantly moist; can withstand some mild drought
Soil: average garden soil, pH 4.8 to 7.5, average 6.3 (T. vulgare); 4.9 to 7.2, average 6.2 (T. balsamita)
Propagation: divisions in spring or fall easiest, seeds and cuttings also possible; 240,000 seeds per ounce (8,466/g) (T. vulgare)
Culinary use: very limited; may be poisonous in excess
Craft use: dried flowers, potpourri, natural insecticides
Landscape use: front to middle of herb or perennial border
Tansy and costmary were once listed as species of Chrysanthemum, but in the realignment of that genus of 200 species with mixed origins, tansy and costmary were moved to Tanacetum, a genus with about 150 species mostly native to the Old World. This genus, defined by microscopic characteristics, chemistry, and so on, also includes two familiar medicinal herbs beyond the scope of this book, T. cinerariifolium (Trevir.) Schultz-Bip., pyrethrum, and T. parthenium (L.) Schultz-Bip., feverfew.
The immediate source of the generic name is from the medieval Latin name for tansy, tanazeta, but the root is believed to be derived from the Greek word athanatos (“immortal”). This is perhaps an allusion to the long-lasting flowers or perhaps an allusion to the ancient practice of using tansy for embalming and meat preservation.
costmary
French: balsamite, tanaise balsamite, menthe-coq
German: Balsamkrautes, Marien Balsam, Marienblatt, Frauen Münze, Frauenblatt, Minzenartiger Rainfarn, Garten-Rainfarn
Dutch: tuinbalsem
Italian: balsamite, erba costa, tanaceto balsamino, erba di San Pietro, erba di Santa Maria, erba amara
Spanish: balsamite, tanaceto
Portuguese: tanaceto
Costmary is usually represented in the herb garden by large, upright, yellow-green leaves, sometimes coated with a blue-green wax. Then, at the time of flowering, straggly stems ascend with daisy-like flowers, yellow centers with or without white rays. The large leaves of costmary have been used as an herb and pot herb, but its principal use today is in liqueurs, the only use for which it has GRAS status. Costmary has a relatively minor use in perfumery today, but it was once used with lavender for “sweet washing water.” For the home gardener, it’s excellent in potpourri and blends well with rosemary, cloves, bay, cinnamon, and sage.
Costmary was once used for strewing, and appropriately enough it is insecticidal because it contains pyrethrin I. Thus, flaked or powdered dry costmary leaves may be effective against fleas and other insect pests of the home and garden; experimentation is needed. Costmary has some curative effects on liver damage.
If botanists are a bit uncertain exactly where costmary fits in the scheme of evolution (Tanacetum or Chrysanthemum), they are not the only ones in the garden who are confused. Some people have found that confusion and mystery abound even in the meanings of common names that have been applied to T. balsamita. To look at a list of past common names for this plant leaves one mystified and full of questions. Why was costmary originally called Costus Marie, or Mary Magdalene’s balsam? It has also been called maudeline or maudelinewort, again after Mary Magdalene, but the texts are curiously silent on the dedication of this particular herb to Mary Magdalene. Why are the alternate German names Marien Balsam and Frauen Münze, which signify dedication to the Virgin Mary? Was the Latin name originally Costus amarus (bitter balsam) rather than Costus Marie? The meaning of alecost, another common name, is obvious: the herb was once used to flavor beer and beverages containing wine. The aptness of another, Bible leaf, is also clear: the large, thin leaves were once used as bookmarks.
Mint geranium is another confusing name. The reference to mint is clear, since spearmint is a predominant odor in many forms of costmary. But where does geranium come from? The English have also called this plant garden mace or garden allspice. One thing is certain, though, in this welter of confusion: T. balsamita translates into English as “balsam tansy.”
Another confusion is the distinction between costmary and camphor plant. Costmary (known to herbalists as Balsamita Mas or Balsamita major) is the form with yellow, rayless daisies and yellow-green leaves scented of tansy and spearmint. Camphor plant, or lesser cost-mary (known to herbalists as Balsamita Foemina or Balsamita minor), is the form with white-rayed, yellow-centered daisies and blue-green leaves scented of camphor. The former is sometimes designated in texts as var. tanacetoides Boiss., so the latter would then be var. balsamita, but no one has looked at Linnaeus’ type specimen (probably in his Hortus Cliffortianus), so the correct nomenclature of the varieties is, as yet, unknown.
Costmary is normally propagated by divisions planted in well-drained soil in full sun. Normally the herb serves as a groundcover, but at the time of flowering it rises to a sprawling 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 m) high. These two uneven heights make it difficult to place in many gardens.
Important chemistry: At least three chemo-types of costmary exist:
1. a camphor-scented form with 51 to 92 percent camphor, 0 to 4 percent alpha-thujone, and 0 to 1 percent carvone;
2. a camphor/tansy-scented form with 35 to 47 percent camphor, 28 to 41 percent alpha-thujone, and trace to 1 percent carvone;
3. a spearmint-scented form with 20 to 68 percent carvone, trace to 15 percent alpha- thujone, and no camphor in the essential oil.
tansy
French: tanaise, tanaise commune, barbotine
German: Rainfarn, Wurmkraut
Dutch: boerenwormkruid, reinvaren
Italian: tanaceto, atanasia, aniceto
Spanish: tanaceto, balsamita menor, hierba lombriguera
Portuguese: tanaceto, atanásia da boticas
Swedish: renfana
Tansy, or golden buttons, is a pleasure to have in the garden just for its dark green, ferny leaves on stems to 5 feet (1.5 m) tall. The bright yellow buttons, or rayless daisies, add extra interest. The scent is variable. The typical form, scented with beta-thujone, is very toxic; 4 cc of essential oil represents a lethal adult dose. Yet, tansy is considered GRAS in liqueurs. Tansy was once used in an Easter dish—a peculiar green custard served in a pie shell—and cakes flavored with tansy acquired the name “tansies.”
Tanacetum vulgare
The oil of tansy prevents the growth of fungi and gram-positive bacteria in the laboratory, supporting the folk use of tansy in both embalming (branches were often interred with corpses) and meat preservation (tansy was once rubbed on meat, and this also helped to repel flies).
Tansy is extremely easy to grow in well-drained soil
in full sun: so easy, in fact, that it should
be called weedy.
Tansy is recommended as a companion plant for potatoes because it repels Colorado potato beetle, and aqueous extracts of tansy will repel cabbageworms and diamondback moths. Experiment by soaking tansy leaves in water overnight, filtering, and spraying the remaining liquid on potato and cabbage plants well in advance of harvest. Tansy can also effectively repel mosquitoes if crushed and rubbed on clothing—if you don’t mind green stains.
Tansy is extremely easy to grow in well-drained soil in full sun: so easy, in fact, that it should be called weedy. Thus, tansy would be best situated in a cottage or meadow garden. The chief named variation is var. crispum L., curly tansy. ‘Isla Gold’ is a golden form of tansy.
Important chemistry: Tansy is characterized by the following seven chemotypes based upon foliar essential oil.
1. A form scented of arborvitae (typical tansy) has 22 to 98 percent beta-thujone, trace to 37 percent sabinene, trace to 26 percent camphor, and 0 to 14 percent umbellulone.
2. A form scented of camphor/eucalyptus has 12 to 80 percent camphor and 4 to 31 percent 1,8-cineole.
3. A form scented of sweet Annie has 60 to 79 percent artemisia ketone.
4. A form scented of California bay has up to 61 percent umbellulone.
5. A form scented of chrysanthemums has either 32 to 82 percent trans-chrysanthenyl acetate and 2 to 18 percent trans-chrysan-thenol or 22 to 49 percent chrysanthemum epoxide or 26 to 30 percent lyratol, 7 to 28 percent lyratyl acetate, and 0 to 24 percent camphor.
6. A form scented of rosemary/eucalyptus has 8 to 52 percent 1,8-cineole and 9 to 21 percent borneol.
7. A form scented of eucalyptus/arborvitae/myrtle has 0 to 78 percent alpha-thujone, trace to 46 percent 1,8-cineole, 0 to 44 percent beta-thujone, 0 to 25 percent myrtenol, and 0 to 16 percent vulgarone B.
A study at the University of Helsinki and Purdue University grouped the volatile compounds from the flower heads of tansy from 20 genotypes collected in Finland into six groups based upon a complete linkage cluster analysis. Another study grouped 40 collections of tansy from Norway into seven groups and correlated these with leaf morphology.
Other compounds present in amounts greater than 10 percent in tansy oil include tricyclene, davadone D, bornyl acetate, terpinen-4-ol, thymol, myrtenol, gamma-terpinene, alpha-pinene, and/or isopinocamphone. High par-thenolides have also been reported in thujone-free forms from the Netherlands. A shame that these other scented types are not commonly cultivated!
Key:
1. Leaves deeply divided into segments......................................................... T. vulgare
1a. Leaves simple, not divided.................................................................. T. balsamita
T. balsamita L., Sp. pl. 845. 1753 [Chrysanthemum balsamita (L.) Baillon, non L.; Balsamita major Desf.; Pyrethrum majus (Desf.) Tzelev.].
Two subspecies are known [subsp. balsamita and subsp. balsamitoides (Sch. Bip.) Grierson], but subsp. balsamita is our costmary.
Native country: Costmary is native to southwest Asia but widely cultivated and naturalized throughout Europe and North America.
General habit: The flowering stems of costmary rise to 30 to 120 cm. Stems may be simple or branched and densely leafy.
Leaves: Basal and stem-leaves are oblong or elliptic, wedge-shaped at the base, round-toothed, stalked, silvery-hairy, 15 to 31 cm; the upper leaves are reduced in size, 3.8 to 12.7 cm.
Flowers: Individual yellow flower heads are 6 to 10 mm in diameter in the form without rays, or 10 to 16 mm in the form with 4 to 6 mm white rays.
T. vulgare L., Sp. pl. 844. 1753 [Chrysanthemum vulgare (L.) Bernh., non (Lam.) Gaterau; C. tanacetum Karsch, non Vis.].
Native country: Tansy is native to Europe but naturalized in North America.
General habit: Stems are 30 to 150 cm high, branched above.
Leaves: Leaves are deeply divided, smooth to sparsely hairy, glandular, to 12 cm long; lower stem leaves are more than 5 cm long, stalked, oblong to oblong-egg-shaped, while the upper stem leaves are similar but stalkless.
Flowers: Five to 100 individual flower heads, each to 8 mm across, are arranged in a dense inflorescence.
thymbra
Family: Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Growth form: woody subshrubs to 22 inches (55 cm)
Hardiness: probably Zone 9a
Light: full sun
Water: moist to somewhat dry; can withstand drought when established
Soil: well-drained gravelly or rocky loam
Propagation: seeds in spring or cuttings during spring and summer
Culinary use: oregano and thyme substitutes
Craft use: wreaths
Landscape use: container plant
This genus is very similar to Thymus in appearance and horticultural requirements, but it is not reliably hardy above Zone 9a. The name is derived from the Greek name, which actually refers to Satureja thymbra L. The genus includes four species, but the following two species provide another source of an oregano or thyme-like odor.
conehead thyme
The dense head-like inflorescences provided the name for this species. In English it is known as conehead thyme, “corido thyme,” Cretan thyme, thyme of the ancients, Spanish origanum, or headed savory. This was the thyme of the ancient Greeks and is still the source of “thyme honey” of the Greek Islands. This is a woody subshrub with bright lilac flowers on stems up to almost 20 inches (50 cm) tall. Linear leaves are up to about ½ inch (15 mm) long and up to 2.5 mm wide.
The Arabic name is za’atar farsi (Persian hyssop). Conehead thyme exists in both high carva crol (oregano-scented) and high thymol (thyme-scented) forms. The leaves of oregano-scented conehead thyme may be used in the same fashion as Greek oregano and are commonly used in za’atar, a Middle Eastern spice mixture. It is probably hardy to Zone 9b. See Thymus vulgaris for details of culture.
Spain provides the oil of conehead thyme as Spanish “origanum oil.” The essential oil of T. capitatus is considered GRAS at 0.5 to 99 ppm. The oil of conehead thyme has been demonstrated in the laboratory to be antibacterial, anti fungal, and antioxidant, and has application as a fumigant for stored grain and citrus.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of conehead thyme contains 5 to 86 percent carvacrol, trace to 72 percent thymol, 0 to 21 percent p-cymene, and 0 to 19 percent gamma-terpinene.
zatar hommar
The spike-like inflorescence provided the name for this species. In Arabic this is known as za’atar hommar (donkey hyssop) or za’atar sah-wari (desert hyssop). This is a woody subshrub with pink flowers on stems to 22 inches (55 cm) tall. Linear leaves are up to almost 1 inch (23 mm) long and up to 1/8 inch (3 mm) wide.
The essential oil of T. spicata exists in either high carvacrol (oregano-scented) or high thymol (thyme-scented) chemotypes. The essential oil of T. spicata is antifungal, antibacterial, and antioxidant. The leaves of the high carvacrol chemotype of T. spicata may be used in the same fashion as Greek oregano, and they too are a common ingredient in za’atar. This herb is probably reliably hardy to Zone 9a. See Thymus vulgaris for details of culture.
Thymbra spicata
Important chemistry: The essential oil consists of 7 to 71 percent carvacrol, trace to 62 percent thymol, 5 to 30 percent gamma-terpi-nene, and 9 to 26 percent p-cymene. Examination of 115 individuals in southern Puglia, Italy, found three principal chemotypes: carvacrol, carvacrol/thymol, and thymol. This is similar to other studies, as those from Israel and Sinai.
Key:
1. Larger leaves up to 3/8 by 1/6 inch (10 by 1.5 mm), inflorescences generally head-shaped....... T. capitata
1a. Larger leaves up to 11/16 by 1/8 inch (18 by 3 mm), inflorescences generally spike-shaped........T. spicata
T. capitata (L.) Cav., Elench. pl. horti matr. 37. 1803 [Satureja capitata L., Thymus capitatus (L.) Hoffmanns. & Link, Coridothymus capitatus (L.) Rchb. fil.].
Native country: Conehead thyme is native to arid plains and dry, rocky hills throughout the Mediterranean region of Europe, eastern Asia, and northern Africa.
General habit: This is a woody subshrub 15 to 50 cm tall, stems erect.
Leaves: Leaves are in pairs alternately at right angles, almost three-angled, stalkless, linear to parallel-sided, 5 to 12 mm long, 1.0 to 2.5 mm wide, tapering to the apex, stiff and leathery, minutely hairy, margin flat. Inflorescence a terminal globose or oblong-conical head, 1 to 2 cm in diameter.
Flowers: Calyx is 4 to 5 mm long, dorsally flattened. Corolla is bright lilac, pale lilac, or white.
T. spicata L., Sp. pl. 569. 1753.
Native country: Za’atar hommar is native to dry calcareous (high calcium) sites from Anatolia to Israel.
General habit: This is a woody subshrub to 55 cm tall, stems erect. Leaves are 15 to 23 × 2 to 3 mm, linear to linear-lance-shaped, toothless, hairless or beset with a marginal fringe of hairs, stalkless.
Flowers: Calyx is 5 to 8.5 mm. Corolla is pink.
thyme
Family: Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Growth form: trailing or erect woody sub-shrubs to 14 inches (35 cm)
Hardiness: many hardy to Zone 6
Light: full sun
Water: moist to somewhat dry; can withstand drought when established
Soil: pH 4.5 to 8.0, average 6.3 (T. vulgaris)
Propagation: 125,000 seeds per ounce (4,409/g) (T. vulgaris)
Culinary use: meats, vegetables, tea
Craft use: wreaths, potpourri
Landscape use: from groundcover to borders of beds
The thymes provide a variety of scents, from sweet to coarse, and growth patterns, from dainty to shrubby, but variety does not stop there. The genus Thymus includes about 350 species native to mostly Eurasia with many variations in appearance and scent within a single species, and hybridization is common. Thyme fanciers who set out to possess every thyme may have a lifetime of collecting ahead of them. All thymes are trailing to erect perennial subshrubs with terminal white to magenta flowers, often in a head-like inflorescence, and tiny, linear leaves. Most of the cultural parameters have been established based upon the requirements of common thyme (T. vulgaris), and the reader is directed to that species for further detail.
The generic name was derived from one of three ancient Greek root words: thumus (“soul,” or “spirit”), thymon (“fumigate”), and/or thumon (“mind”). The latter is related to the semantic notions of breath, perception, or wits. Of similar etymology is the thymus gland, which was once believed to be the residence of the human soul. Today we also use thym and thymis as a prefix and suffix in words describing psychic disorders. Supporting this etymology was the ancient Greek use of thyme as a gravesite planting or an adornment for the dead.
lemon thyme
As the name implies, lemon thyme may be used in cooking and tea to impart a lemony flavor. This spreading subshrub, perhaps T. pulegioides × T. vulgaris, forms a mound reaching about 12 inches (30 cm) tall with tiny, egg-shaped leaves. ‘Aureus’ (a.k.a. ‘Gold Edge’), perhaps better assigned to T. pulegioides, is the golden lemon thyme with variegation generally along the margins but sometimes with a pattern that is more irregular and mottled. ‘Archer’s Gold’, which might also be better assigned to T. pulegioides, is golden yellow, becoming green in summer. ‘Golden King’ is reputed to be more gold than green and to hold its variegation better through the summer. ‘Silver Queen’ has a cream or light yellow edge that superficially appears to be silver and may not be different from ‘Aureus’. ‘Silver King’ is mottled and margined cream to silver, more widely than ‘Silver Queen’. These cultivars are also listed under this species but only occasionally encountered in cultivation and need further clarification (some may be better assigned to T. pulegioides): ‘Bertram Anderson’, ‘Boothman’, ‘Golden Lemon’, ‘Golden Queen’, ‘Golden Upright’, ‘Lemon Frost’, ‘Lime’, ‘Nyewoods’, ‘Pink Ripple’, ‘Pygmy Lemon’, ‘Silver Lemon’, and ‘Villa Nova’. See T. vulgaris for general cultural directions.
Thymus ×citriodorus
The oil of lemon thyme repels mosquitoes and is antibacterial.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of lemon thyme consists of 39 to 71 percent geraniol with 3 to 8 percent geranial and 2 to 6 percent neral. The latter two chemicals provide the distinctive lemony odor, in spite of their low concentrations, to complement the rosy odor of geraniol. ‘Archer’s Gold’ has 44 percent carvacrol and 21 percent p-cymene.
caraway thyme
Caraway thyme was once used to flavor a “baron” of beef (two sirloins of beef not cut entirely apart), but today caraway thyme is commonly used as a leafy substitute for caraway seeds. Besides the typical caraway-scented form, caraway thyme also occurs in an unnamed oregano-scented form.
Hailing from Corsica and Sardinia, the ecological and evolutionary origin of this thyme is different from other species of thyme. Corsica is mostly of ancient crystalline rock, different from the mainland, and has many endemic species as, for example, Corsican mint (Mentha requienii). While the cultural directions of T. vulgaris apply to this thyme, caraway thyme can take more moisture and humidity than many other species of thyme. It is probably the only species that can be successfully used for creating a thyme lawn in the hot, humid areas of the eastern United States. Most other creeping species of thyme gradually die out, but caraway thyme just keeps mounding up, creating a springy mat with heads of pink flowers and tiny linear leaves. The so-called nutmeg thyme is identical to the normal caraway thyme. These cultivars are also listed under this species but only occasionally encountered in cultivation and need further clarification: ‘Bob Flowerdew’, ‘Lemon Scented’, and Lemon Carpet™. See T. vulgaris for details of culture.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of caraway thyme may contain 0 to 85 percent carvone, 3 to 79 percent carvacrol, 0 to 20 percent trans-dihydrocarvone, and 0 to 13 percent p-cymene.
mastic thyme
Spanish: mejorana
Mastic thyme is distinctive for its unusual complement of eucalyptus and lavender scents in the same plant. This forms a woody shrub to 50 cm tall with tiny, egg-shaped leaves and white fowers in a terminal head. Mastic thyme finds some use in soaps and shampoo as well as meat sauces, processed meats, and mixed spices for soup. Spain is the major producer of mastic thyme oil, but it is also native to Portugal. More tender than most thymes, it is probably only reliably hardy to Zone 8. These cultivars are also listed under this species but only occasionally encountered in cultivation and need further clarification: ‘Didi’, ‘Eucalyptus-scented’, and ‘Lavender-scented’. See T. vulgaris for details of culture.
Important chemistry: Mastic thyme has two unnamed major chemotypes: a eucalyptus-scented form with 1,8-cineole (3 to 75 percent) or a lavender-scented form with linalool (6 to 83 percent).
creeping thyme
The epithet is derived from the Latin meaning “very early” and “British.” Previously this was referred to subsp. arcticus, but rules of priority dictate subsp. britannicus as the correct name. This sometimes nearly scentless, low-growing thyme spreads by self-layering its stems as it creeps across the soil. Creeping thyme or mother-of-thyme are two English names applied to this European thyme in its confusion with T. serpyllum.
‘Albus’ and ‘White Moss’ have white flowers. ‘Emerald Cushion’ has white flowers combined with somewhat smooth, bright green leaves. ‘Mayfair’ has leaves variegated with yellow during cool weather. ‘Minor’ is very tiny and excellent for growing between paving stones. ‘Coccineus’ has deep red-purple or magenta flowers. ‘Lanuginosus’ has densely woolly foliage. ‘Pink Chintz’ has pale pink flowers. ‘Hall’s Woolly’ has scattered hairs on the leaves. ‘Wild Garden Lavender’ has clear lavender flowers. ‘Annie Hall’ has bright green, essentially smooth leaves and rose flowers. These cultivars are also listed under this species but only occasionally encountered in cultivation and need further clarification: ‘Atropurpureus’, ‘Carol Ann’, ‘Coccineus Major’, ‘Doretta Klaber’, ‘East Lodge’, ‘Elfin’, ‘Flossy’, ‘Fulney Red’, ‘Goldstream’, ‘Hans Stam’, ‘Hardstoft Red’, ‘Hazel Camplin’, ‘Iden’, ‘Lemon Curd’, ‘Magic Carpet’, ‘Minimus’, ‘Minor Albus’, ‘Mint’, ‘Mudcross Hill’, ‘Petite’, ‘Purple Beauty’, ‘Purple Kiss’, ‘Purpurteppich” (‘Purple Carpet’), ‘Rainbow Falls’, ‘Reiter’s Red’, ‘Roseum’, ‘Russetings’, ‘September’, ‘Snow-drift ’, ‘Splendens’, ‘Thomas’s White’, and ‘Vey’.
Thymus praecox subsp. britannicus
While beautiful in the herb garden landscape, its use seems to be limited to potpourri. See T. vulgaris for details of culture.
Important chemistry: At least two chemotypes of Thymus praecox subsp. britannicus exist: a musty lavender-scented form with high linalool/linalyl acetate (19 to 88 percent), sometimes with hedycarol (0 to 51 percent); and a musty form with high hedycarol (30 to 55 percent), beta-caryophyllene (4 to 28 percent), germacrene D (trace to 13 percent), and beta-bisabolene (trace to 26 percent).
wild thyme
Called mother-of-thyme or Pennsylvania Dutch tea thyme, this European thyme is named after its superficial resemblance to pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium). Wild thyme is variable in height, leaf shape, and flower color. ‘Fosterflower’ has white flowers and an acrid, spicy scent. ‘White Magic’ has white flowers and lemon-scented foliage. ‘Gold Dust’ has bright yellow-green leaves. ‘Kermesinus’, crimson thyme or creeping red thyme, bears especially intense magenta flowers. ‘Oregano-scented’ (sometimes sold as T. nummularius) has a spicy, somewhat antiseptic scent. These cultivars are also listed under this species but only occasionally encountered in cultivation and need further clarification: ‘Doone Valley’, ‘Dot Wells Creeping’, ‘Dot Wells Upright’, ‘Elliott’s Gold’, ‘Fosley’, ‘Golden Dwarf’, ‘Goldentime’, ‘Lemon’, ‘Lemon King’, ‘Sir John Lawes’, and ‘Tabor’. Some of the lemon-scented forms previously assigned to T. ×citriodorus (which see) may actually belong to this species. See T. vulgaris for details of culture.
The oil of T. pulegioides is antibacterial and antifungal.
Important chemistry: At least five different chemotypes can be distinguished: a sweet camphoraceous odor from fenchone (average 34 percent), a lavender odor from linalool (average 55 percent), a lemon-rose odor from citral (geranial plus neral, average 29 percent) and geraniol (average 22 percent), a thyme odor from thymol (average 21 percent), and an oregano odor from carvacrol (average 33 percent). The oil of T. pulegioides contains 0 to 88 percent alpha-terpinyl acetate, 1 to 55 percent linalool, trace to 55 percent carvacrol, 0 to 39 percent thymol, trace to 34 percent fenchone, 6 to 29 percent citral, trace to 25 percent gamma-terpinene, trace to 22 percent geraniol, trace to 25 percent thymol, 0 to 20 percent alpha-terpineol, and 2 to 12 percent germacrene D. In Lithuania, six chemotypes have been reported: (1) thyme-scented with 26 to 31 percent thymol, 5 to 12 percent thymyl methyl ether, 10 to 11 percent p-cymene, and 10 percent beta-caryophyllene; (2) oregano-scented with 6 to 33 percent carvacrol, 11 to 31 percent gamma-terpinene, and 8 to 27 percent p-cymene; (3) oregano/thyme-scented with 12 to 23 percent carvacrol, 8 to 21 percent gamma-terpinene, 13 to 16 percent p-cymene, and 12 to 14 percent thymol; (4) rose/lemon-scented with 3 to 44 percent geraniol, 11 to 29 percent geranial, trace to 19 percent nerol, and 0 to 17 percent neral; (5) lavender-scented with 80 percent linalool, and (6) spicy with 18 to 19 percent beta-caryophyllene, 15 to 16 percent beta-bisabolene, 13 to 15 percent germacrene D, and 8 to 13 percent (E)-nerolidol. A sweet marjoram-scented form has been reported from Denmark with 62 to 63 percent cis-sabinene hydrate.
Thymus pulegioides
Japanese or Chinese thyme
Chinese: bao xiang
Japanese:
Japanese or Chinese thyme may be substituted for common thyme, but the flavor is slightly different. The overall appearance of this very hardy thyme is similar to T. serpyllum. Japanese/Chinese thyme occurs in high and low carvacrol forms, and f. albiflorus has white flowers. The specific epithet refers to the five-ribbed leaf. See T. vulgaris for details of culture.
Important chemistry: The oil may consist of 1 to 73 percent linalool, 0 to 56 percent thymol, 0 to 21 percent carvacrol, 0 to 18 percent geranyl acetate, trace to 29 percent p-cymene, and 7 to 4 percent borneol.
mother-of-thyme
French: serpolet, thym sauvage (bâtard)
German: Quendel, Feld-Thymian, Wilder Thymian
Dutch: wilde tijm, veld-tijm
Italian: timo serpillo, timo selvatico, serpillo, pepolino, sermollino selvatico, pepolino
Spanish: tomillo, serpol
Portuguese: serpil, serpol, serpao
Swedish: backtimjan
This species is called mother-of-thyme, wild thyme, or brotherwort in English. The “mother” here refers to the use of high thymol forms for treating the soft muscles in the uterus after childbirth. The specific epithet is derived from an old Greek name for wild thyme.
This creeping thyme, native to northern Europe, has linear leaves and heads of purple flowers. While this species is often listed in catalogs or believed to be naturalized in the United States, the plant is inevitably T. pulegioides or T. praecox subsp. britannicus; the primary distinguishing characteristics are tiny. Thyme-scented (high thymol) mother-of-thyme is sometimes substituted for common thyme. See T. vulgaris for details of culture.
The oil of T. serpyllum may be highly antifungal, antibacterial, and antioxidant in the high phenolic (thymol and/or carvacrol) forms.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of cultivated T. serpyllum contains trace to 43 percent thymol, trace to 37 percent carvacrol, trace to 21 percent limonene, trace to 21 percent para-cymene, trace to 23 percent gamma-terpinene, and 2 to 12 percent beta-caryophyllene. In Lithuania, T. serpyllum has six chemotypes: (1) eucalyptus-scented with 30 percent 1,8-cineole and 4 to 16 percent beta-caryophyllene; (2) eucalyptus/spearmint-scented with 22 percent (E)-caryl acetate and 14 percent 1,8-cineole, (3) basil-scented with 35 percent (E)-beta-ocimene; (4) camphor-scented with 24 to 27 percent caryo phyllene oxide and 9 to 12 percent camphor; (5) spicy with 23 to 27 percent beta-caryophyllene and 9 to 16 percent myrcene; and (6) mint/spicy with 24 percent cis-p-menth-2-en-1-ol and 14 percent caryophyllene oxide. In Finland, chemotypes of T. serpyllum may be characterized by the content of hedycarol, germacra-1(10),4-dien-6-ol, germacra-1(10),5-dien-4-ol, linalool, and linalyl acetate.
common thyme
French: thym vrai
German: Thymian, Römisher Quendel
Dutch: echte tijm
Italian: timo, erbuccia, pepolino, sermillino
Spanish: tomillo común, salsero, tomillo vulgar
Portuguese: tomilho
Swedish: timjan
Russian: tim’yan
Chinese: pai-li-hsiang
Japanese: taimu
Common (“vulgar”) thyme or garden thyme, native from the western Mediterranean to southeastern Italy, is normally used in cooking, while the oil is also antibacterial and antifungal. Thymus vulgaris has wide variation, often not characterized by cultivar names, in its native range. Individual plants exhibit a wide range of growth habits, leaf sizes, leaf colors, and scents.
‘Narrow-leaf French’ is the name appended to the seed strain high in thymol and often offered as ‘German Winter’, ‘French Summer’, or ‘Greek Gray’. In common parlance, this is the garden thyme or common thyme. Many forms of ‘Narrow-leaf French’ have female flowers and hence will not come completely true from seed (since they must outcross to set seed). If you find a particularly favorable clone, propagate it by cuttings or layerings.
‘Miniature’ forms tiny tuft s and is perfect for troughs. ‘Orange Balsam’ has a strong, bitter orange, turpentine-like odor; place this where it can be casually stepped upon. ‘Bittersweet’ has an acrid, tar-like odor. ‘Fragrantissimus’ has a fragrance of rose geranium. ‘Well-Sweep Variegated’ has leaves edged in creamy white. These cultivars are also listed under this species but only occasionally encountered in cultivation and need further clarification: ‘Albus’, ‘Chamay’, ‘Compactus’, ‘Dorcas White’, ‘English Wild’, ‘Erectus’, ‘Forcalquer’, ‘Golden Pins’, ‘Gray Hill’, ‘Haute Vallée de l’Lude’, ‘Les Baux’, ‘Lucy’, ‘Miniature’, ‘Pinewood’, ‘Provençal’, ‘Silver Posie’, ‘Snow White’, and ‘Victoria Becker’.
Thymus vulgaris
Spain is the leading supplier of thyme leaf, while Spain and France are the leading suppliers of thyme oil (while T. vulgaris is commercially cultivated in France, both T. vulgaris. and T. zygis L. are harvested from the wild in Spain). The leaf and essential oil are considered GRAS. Thyme has antioxidant, antifungal, and antibacterial activity. Luteolin, a flavonoid in thyme, has been characterized as a strong anti-mutagen; one report attributes complete remission of cutaneous melanoma metastases to thyme oil. Thyme oil is also antitrypanosomal. The oil of thyme may also help to control Varroa mites in bees.
All thymes demand well-drained, near-neutral soil and a position in full sun. Up to 50 percent or more of sand, gravel, or similar aggregate is beneficial because water is not retained for long periods of time and the roots are less likely to rot. While common thyme may be directly seeded, the process is slow and mined with environmental risks, as is true with most small-seeded perennial herbs, and much time is gained the first year from transplants; the propagation of favored chemotypes demands vegetative propagation by cuttings, layers, or divisions. In France, plants are placed 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 cm) between plants and 16 to 32 inches (40 to 80 cm) between rows. The terminal 6-inch (15 cm) shoots of common thyme are typically harvested at full bloom, but another harvest can be made at the end of summer (end of August, beginning of September). At a maximum density of 16,188 plants per acre (40,000 plants/ha) in France, a harvest of 867 pounds per acre (972 kg/ha) dried leaves may be expected for the first harvest. Recommendations from Quebec are 40,469 plants per acre (100,000 plants/ha). New Zealand has reported the phenomenal yields of dried herb at 1,410 to 5,585 pounds per acre (1,580 to 6,260 kg/ha) for first year plantings and 6,744 to 11,955 pounds per acre (7,560 to 13,400 kg/ha) for established crops with about 2.44 gallons per acre (22.8 l/ha) of oil.
Early spring pruning that removes one-half to one-third of the stem length is beneficial if plants are not completely harvested at one time in the late summer. Regular pruning will increase the number of stems and reduce the amount of old wood on the plant. The more old wood on the plant, the shorter its life is likely to be, and woody thyme plants are more susceptible to winter damage.
Important chemistry: Many different fragrances are recorded: high linalool (trace to 98 percent), alpha-terpineol (trace to 96 percent), geraniol (0 to 93 percent), p-cymene (1 to 80 percent), carvacrol (trace to 80 percent), thymol (trace to 65 percent), or trans-4-thujanol (trace to 42 percent). The essential oil may also contain 0 to 67 percent geranyl acetate, trace to 62 percent terpinyl acetate, trace to 70 percent 1,8-cineole, 1 to 32 percent terpinen-4-ol, trace to 28 percent gamma-terpinene, trace to 18 percent linalyl acetate, trace to 25 percent 8-myr-cenol, trace to 15 percent camphor, trace to 13 percent alpha-pinene, trace to 13 percent beta-pinene, trace to 11 percent camphene, 2 to 11 percent beta-caryophyllene, and trace to 10 percent 8-myrcenyl acetate. ‘Bittersweet’ is a clone high in carvacrol, while ‘Orange Balsam’ is a clone high in alpha-terpineol.
Cultivar: ‘Argenteus’
Silver thyme, as this hybrid is commonly known, has an essential oil with 55 percent thymol and can be substituted for common thyme. This often masquerades as silver lemon thyme, but smells like T. vulgaris ‘Narrow-leaf French’; “lemon” here refers to the slight yellow color that this thyme often assumes.
Cultivar: ‘Broad-leaf English’
English thyme has 55 percent thymol and 13 percent para-cymene and may be substituted for common thyme, from which it differs by its flat leaf margins.
Thymus ‘Clear Gold’ (creeping golden thyme, yellow transparent thyme), ‘Doone Valley’, ‘Long-leaf Gray’, ‘Longwood’, ‘Variegated English’ (a mutation of ‘Broad-leaf English’ with irregular blotches on the leaves and some albino shoots), ‘Wedgewood English’ (a mutation of ‘Variegated English’ with the central portion of most leaves a distinct yellow), and ‘Woolly-stemmed Sharp’ (in reference to its scent) seem to be limited to landscaping and potpourri. For all these hybrids, see T. vulgaris for cultural directions.
Key:
1. Upper calyx teeth similar in size and shape to lower, calyx nearly radially symmetrical....... T. mastichina
1a. Upper calyx teeth different in size and/or shape from lower, calyx two-lipped.......................... 2
2. Leaf margin rolled backward from each margin upon the lower side (or distinctly thickened)..................................................................................................... T. vulgaris
2a. Leaf margin flat or only slightly revolute, not thickened............................................3
3. Stems with hairs on the angles of the stems only.................................... T. pulegioides
3a. Stems hairy all around or with hairs on two opposite faces of the stem, the other faces smooth.................................................................................................... 4
4. Venation clearly with lateral nerves curving toward the margin, the upper pair anastomosing with the midvein at the apex........................................................ T. praecox
4a. Venation with lateral veins curving toward the leaf apex, but becoming faint and disappearing before reaching the margin................................................................. 5
5. Stems hairy all around with hairs clearly more prominent on the angles than the faces.... 6
6. Plant to 15 cm tall, broad-spreading, stems decumbent or weakly ascending, leaves bright yellow-green...................................................... T. ‘Clear Gold’
6a. Plant 20 to 30 cm tall, suberect, stems erect or ascending, leaves dark green or with a distinct yellow marginal band............................................. T. ×citriodorus
5a. Stems with hairs on two opposite faces of the stem, the other two faces smooth or hairy all around but hairs not clearly more prominent on the angles than faces.................... 7
7. Leaves variegated, at least in spring, fall, and winter................................8
8. Plant prostrate, to 10 cm tall in flower (variegation not evident in mid-summer).................................................................................... 9
9. Stems hairy all around....................................... T. ‘Doone Valley’
9a. Stems with hairs on two opposite faces of the stem, the other faces smooth......................................................................... T. praecox
8a. Plant suberect or low-shrubby, 15 to 30 cm tall in flower....................... 10
10. Leaves with a central blotch of yellow or yellow-green........................................................................ T. ‘Wedgewood English’
10a. Leaves marginally or irregularly variegated with very pale yellow........ 11
11. Variegated marginal, background color gray-green or olive....................................................................... T. ‘Argenteus’
11a. Variegated irregular, with no consistent pattern, background color dark green............................................T. ‘Variegated English’
7a. Leaves uniformly green or gray................................................... 12
12. Stems with hairs on two opposite faces of the stem, the other faces smooth................................................... T. praecox
12a. Stems hairy all around, sometimes with hairs more dense on opposite sides................................................... 13
13. Sterile shoots few, short, not prominent...................... 14
14. Leaves smooth or sparsely hairy, green............................................................... T. ‘Broad-leaf English’
14a. Leaves with long hairs above and below, gray-green....... 15
15. Calyx tube about as long as the upper lip..................................................T. ‘Woolly-stemmed Sharp’
15a. Calyx tube shorter than the upper lip....... T. ‘Longwood’
13a. Sterile shoots prominent, prostrate, decumbent, or arching... 16
16. Calyx tube shorter than upper lip... T. ‘Long-leaf Gray’
16a. Calyx tube about as long as upper lip................ 17
17. Leaves stalkless or nearly so............. T. serpyllum
17a. Leaves stalked................................... 18
18. Plant caraway-scented........... T. herba-barona
18a. Plant variously scented, not caraway.......... 19
19. Leaves with scattered long hairs above and below....................T. ‘Long-leaf Gray’
19a. Leaves smooth or minutely hairy.......... 20
20. Flowering stems stouter at base................................... T. quinquecostatus
20a. Flowering stems of about equal diameter throughout................... T. serpyllum
T. ×citriodorus (Pers.) Schreb. ex Schweigg. and Körte, Fl. Erlang. 2:17. 1811 (T. lanuginosus Mill. var. citriodorum Pers.; T. serpyllum L. var. vulgaris Benth.; T. comptus Hort., non Friv.; T. jankae Hort., in part, non 
T. serpyllum auct., non L., var. citriodorus Hort.; T. ‘Lemoneum’)
Native country: Lemon thyme is suspected to be a hybrid of T. pulegioides and T. vulgaris.
General habit: This is a spreading subshrub forming a rather broad mound 20 to 30 cm tall. The stems are erect or ascending but often woody and decumbent at the base; stems are hairy all around with short hairs directed downward, more dense on the angles than faces; flowering stems are usually 10 to 25 cm long.
Leaves: Leaves are stalked, narrowly to broadly widest at the center with ends equal or egg-shaped, 8 to 14 mm long, 3 to 6 mm wide, tapering to the apex or blunt at the apex, usually wedge-shaped at the base.
Flowers: Inflorescence is terminal, oblong, interrupted, 1 cm in diameter. Calyx is 2.5 to 4 mm long. Corolla is 4 to 5 mm long, pale rose-lavender.
T. herba-barona Loisel., Fl. gall. 360. 1807 (T. ‘Nutmeg’, in part).
Native country: Caraway thyme is native only to Corsica and Sardinia on dry, barren slopes.
General habit: Caraway thyme, sometimes offered as “nutmeg” thyme, is a broad, low mound 15 to 20 cm tall, stems woody and hairy all around, or with hairs denser on two opposite faces; flowering stems erect or ascending, sterile shoots arching or decumbent.
Leaves: Leaves are shortly stalked, lanceshaped, narrow and widest at center with ends equal, 5 to 9 mm long, 1.5 to 3 mm wide, gradually narrowing to the apex, or wedge-shaped, almost hairless.
Flowers: Inflorescence is almost globular, lax, occasionally the lowermost flowers remote, 1.5 cm in diameter. Calyx is 3 to 5 mm long. Corolla is rose-purple, 4.5 to 7 mm long.
T. mastichina L., Sp. pl. ed. 2. 827. 1763. Native country: Mastic thyme is native to Spain and Portugal.
General habit: Mastic thyme is a woody shrub 25 to 50 cm tall, stems erect or spreading, hairy all around, creeping shoots absent.
Leaves: Leaves are shortly stalked, green or grayish, narrow and widest at the center with ends equal to egg-shaped, 7 to 12 mm long, 1.5 to 4 mm wide, gradually narrowing to the apex, with short dense wool-like covering of matted, tangled hairs to almost hairless.
Flowers: Inflorescence is a globose to oblong head, lowermost flowers remote, 1 to 2 cm in diameter. Calyx is 5 to 8 mm long, nearly radially symmetrical, very long-hairy, giving the inflorescence a feathery appearance. Corolla is white, 3 to 6 mm long.
T. praecox Opiz, Naturalientausch 6:40. 1824.
Five subspecies are recognized, but the most pertinent for cultivation is as follows:
subsp. britannicus (Ronniger) Holub, Preslia 45:359. 1973 [T. praecox Opiz subsp. arcticus (E. Durand), Jalas, T. drucei Ronn.; T. serpyllum auct., in part, non L.; T. serpyllum L. ‘Carneus’; T. serpyllym L. ‘Roseus’; T. jankae Hort. in part, non ; T. minus Hort.; T. minus Hort.; T. ‘Nutmeg’, in part].
1. Flowers white........................................................................................ 2
2. Corolla 5 to 7 mm long, greatly exceeding the calyx; flowers hermaphroditic, profuse............... 3
3. Leaf margin ciliate all around; leaves often with scattered long hairs above; stem hairs prominent........................................................................................... ‘Albus’
3a. Leaf margin ciliate only at base; leaves smooth and shiny above; stems hairs minute and indistinct............................................................................... ‘Emerald Cushion’
2a. Corolla 2.5 to 3.5 mm long, scarcely exceeding the calyx; flowers female, sparse......... ‘White Moss’
1a. Flowers pink, rose, purple, or magenta................................................................ 4
4. Leaves variegated with yellow in spring, winter, and fall............................... ‘Mayfair’
4a. Leaves green or gray, not variegated........................................................5
5. Plant dwarf, compact, cushion-like, rarely more than 11 to 30 cm in diameter; largest leaves 3.5 mm long, but most smaller, long-hairy above................................... ‘Minor’
5a. Plant broad-spreading, prostrate, often to 1 m in diameter; largest leaves 5 mm or more long..................................................................................... 6
6. Flowers deep red-purple or magenta....................................... ‘Coccineus’
6a. Flowers pink, rose, lavender, or rose-purple........................................... 7
7. Plant densely woolly in all parts, distinctly gray in color; flowers sparse..................................................................................... ‘Lanuginosus’
7a. Plant of variable pubescence, but not woolly; greenish; flowers usually profuse..... 8
8. Flowers pale pink................................................... ‘Pink Chintz’
8a. Flowers lavender, rose, or rose-purple.......................................... 9
9. Leaves broadly egg-shaped to nearly rounded, the largest 3.5 to 4.5 mm wide with scattered long hairs on upper surface, margin hairy all around............................................................................. ‘Hall’s Woolly’
9a. Leaves egg-shaped or narrowed at the base, the largest usually less than 3 mm wide, margin and upper leaf surface of variable hairiness................... 10
10. Flowers clear lavender............................. ‘Wild Garden Lavender’
10a. Flowers rose or rose-purple............................................. 11
11. Leaves bright green; flowers rose, leaf margins hairy below the middle, essentially smooth otherwise............................... ‘ Annie Hall’
11a. Leaves medium to dark green; flowers rose-purple; margin and leaf surface of variable hairiness........................... subsp. britannicus
Native country: This subspecies is found in western Europe.
General habit: This subspecies has been confused with T. serpyllum. Plants are prostrate, flowering stems erect, hairs on two opposite faces, the other two faces smooth, at least in the lower part of the flowering stem.
Leaves: Leaves are stalked, 3 to 8 mm long, mostly narrowed at the base. Inflorescence head-shaped to somewhat elongated, with the lowermost flowers remote.
Flowers: Calyx is 3 to 4 mm long. Corolla is various shades of rose-purple, to 8 mm long.
T. pulegioides L., Sp. pl. 592. 1753. (T. alpestris auct., not Tausch ex A. Kern; T. chamaedrys Fries; T. serpyllum auct., in part, non L.; T. serpyllum L. subsp. montanus Arcang.; T. enervius Klok.; T. serpyllum L. subsp. carniolicus (Borb.) Lyka in Hegi; T. serpyllum L. subsp. effusus (Host) Lyka in Hegi; T. serpyllum L. subsp. parviflorus (Opiz ex H. Braun) Lyka in Hegi)
Key:
1. Flowers white........................................................................................ 2
2. Foliage with a somewhat acrid, spice scent............................................‘Fosterflower’
2a. Foliage lemon-scented................................................................ ‘White Magic’
1a. Flowers of various shades of purple................................................................... 3
3. Leaves bright yellow-green........................................................... ‘Gold Dust’
3a. Leaves medium to dark green.................................................................. 4
4. Flowers very deep red-purple.................................................... ‘Kermesinus’
4a. Flowers pale lavender to purple............................................................. 5
5. Leaves very broadly egg-shaped to nearly rounded, 10 to 12 mm long, 6 to 8 mm wide; with a penetrating spice, somewhat antiseptic, scent....................‘Oregano-scented’
5a. Leaves egg-shaped, widest at the center with the ends equal or narrowed at the base, variously scented............................................................ T. pulegioides
Native country: Mother-of-thyme is native to Europe but naturalized in North America.
General habit: This species has been confused by herb growers with T. serpyllum, but hairs occur only on the angles of the stems. Plants are procumbent to suberect, 10 to 35 cm tall, usually quite broadly spreading. Stems had hairs on the angles of the stems only (goniotrichous).
Leaves: Leaves are stalked, egg-shaped, widest at the center with the ends equal, more rarely lance-shaped, 3 to 5 mm long, 2.5 to 20 mm wide, usually blunt at the apex, sometimes almost tapering to the apex, wedge-shaped to gradually narrowing at the base, hairless or nearly so.
Flowers: Inflorescence elongated or almost head-shaped, usually interrupted, at least below. Calyx is 3 to 4 mm long, green or purple. Corolla is various shades of rose- lavender and purple, 3.5 to 6.5 mm long.
T. quinquecostatus , Oesterr. Bot. Z. 39:263. 1899.
Key:
1. Flowers rosy-purple............................................................... var. quinquecostatus
1a. Flowers white.........................................f. albiflorus H. Hara, Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 51:145. 1937.
Native country: As the name implies, Japanese or Chinese thyme makes its home in Japan, Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia, and Siberia.
General habit: This species has been confused with T. serpyllum, especially in Japan. Plants are suberect with an ascending flowering stems to 15 cm long, hairy all around (holotrichous), but sometimes with hairs sparser on two opposite sides.
Leaves: Leaves are widest at the center with the ends equal to egg-shaped, 6 to 11 mm long, 2 to 5 mm wide, blunt or tapering to the apex, wedge-shaped at base into a short stalk, smooth.
Flowers: Inflorescence is a terminal, lax, egg-shaped head, 1 to 3 cm long. Calyx is 3 to 5 mm long, tinged red-purple toward the apex. Corolla is rosy-purple, 6 to 8 mm long.
T. serpyllum L., Sp. pl. 590. 1753.
Key:
1. Calyx 3 to 4 mm, upper teeth usually 0.5 to 0.8 mm; leaves usually 2 to 3 mm wide....................... var. serpyllum [T. serpyllum L. subsp. angustifolius (Pers.) Archang., T. serpyllum L. subsp. rigidus (Wimm. & Grab.) Lyka]
1a. Calyx 4 to 5 mm, upper teeth to 1.2 mm; leaves usually 3 to 5 mm wide.......................................................... var. tanaensis (Hyl.) Jalas, Acta Bot. Fenn. 39:20. 1947 (T. subarcticus Klok. & Shost.)
Native country: While T. serpyllum is rarely cultivated, this name is repeatedly used for forms of T. pulegioides and T. praecox subsp. britannicus. The species itself is primarily native to northern Europe.
General habit: Plants are prostrate; stems long, creeping, hairy all around.
Leaves: Leaves are almost stalkless or shortly stalked, linear, widest at the center with the ends equal, or narrowed at base, 5 to 13 mm long, 1 to 5 mm wide, hairless or hairy.
Flowers: Inflorescences are head-like or somewhat elongated, about 1 cm in diameter. Calyx is 3 to 5 mm long. Corolla is purple, 6 to 8 mm long.
T. vulgaris L., Sp. pl. 591. 1753 (T. aestivus Reut. ex Willk., T. ilerdensis F. Gonzalez ex Costa, T. webbianus Rouy, T. valentianus Rouy).
This species includes a host of cultivars: ‘Bitter sweet’, ‘Fragrantissimus’, ‘Miniature’, ‘Narrow-leaf French’, ‘Orange Balsam’, and ‘Well-Sweep Variegated’.
Key:
1. Leaves uniformly green or grayish.................................................................... 2
2. Plant 10 to 15 cm tall; leaves 0.5 to 1.5 mm wide........................................... ‘Miniature’
2a. Plant 20 to 35 cm tall; leaves 1 to 3.5 mm wide..................................................... 3
3. Foliage with a sweet, somewhat spicy, warm herbaceous scent............... ‘Narrow-leaf French’
3a. Foliage without typical fragrance of the culinary herb........................................... 4
4. Foliage with strong, bitter orange, turpentine-like odor....................... ‘Orange Balsam’
4a. Foliage not scented as above................................................................ 5
5. Foliage with a somewhat acrid, tar-like odor................................... ‘Bittersweet’
5a. Foliage with the odor of rose geranium.................................. ‘Fragrantissimus’
1a. Leaves variegated with yellow-white............................................‘Well-Sweep Variegated’
Native country: Common thyme is native from the western Mediterranean to southeastern Italy.
General habit: Plants are erect subshrubs, 10 to 35 cm tall, stems hairy all around.
Leaves: Leaves are shortly stalked, linear to narrowly egg-shaped, 4 to 10 mm long, 0.5 to 3.5 mm wide, tapering to the apex, wedge-shaped to gradually narrowing to the base, hairy to coated with dense wool-like covering of matted, tangled hairs of short length.
Flowers: Inflorescence is lax, head-like or elongated and interrupted, 1 to 1.5 cm in diameter. Calyx is 3 to 4 mm long. Corolla is nearly white to pale purple, 3.5 to 7.5 mm long.
T. ‘Argenteus’ (T. ×citriodorus Hort. ‘Argenteus’, T. vulgaris Hort. ‘Argenteus’)
Native country: Silver thyme is a hybrid involving T. vulgaris.
General habit: This is a low, spreading subshrub, 15 to 25 cm tall, hairy all around the stem.
Leaves: Leaves are stalked, egg-shaped, narrowly egg-shaped, parallel-sided, or narrowed at the base, 5 to 8 mm long, 2 to 3 mm wide, blunt or tapering to the apex, gradually narrowing to the base; grayish or olive-green with a narrow, irregular, marginal band of yellowish white.
Flowers: Inflorescence is loosely head-shaped, the lowermost flowers remote, about 1 cm in diameter. Calyx is 2 to 3 mm long, hairy (pubescent), streaked green and yellowish white, often tinged red-purple on the teeth and dorsal side of the tube. Corolla is pale rose-violet, 3 to 3.5 mm long. Only female plants are known.
T. ‘Broad-leaf English’
Native country: A hybrid involving T. vulgaris.
General habit: English thyme is a dense, much-branched subshrub to 25 cm high, stems hairy all around.
Leaves: Leaves are stalked, 6 to 8 mm long, 2.5 to 4 mm wide, tapering to the apex, gradually narrowing to the base or wedge-shaped.
Flowers: Inflorescence is terminal and frequently branched. Calyx is 2.5 to 3 mm long, hairy. Corolla is pale lavender, 3 to 4 mm long. Only female plants are known.
T. ‘Clear Gold’ (T. serpyllum auct. ‘Aureus’, in part)
Native country: Probably a hybrid involving T. pulegioides.
General habit: Creeping golden thyme forms a low, spreading mound to 15 cm; stems are hairy all around, but hairs are more prominent on the angles and sparser on the faces.
Leaves: Leaves are stalked, egg-shaped, widest at the center with the ends equal, or narrowed at the base, 7 to 13 mm long, 2 to 4 mm wide, blunt at the apex, wedge-shaped at the base, bright yellow-green but often greener toward the center.
Flowers: Inflorescence is elongate, lax, interrupted, about 1 cm in diameter. Calyx is 2.5 to 3.5 mm long, often purplish. Corolla is lavender, 3 to 4 mm long. Only female plants known.
T. ‘Long-leaf Gray’ (T. glabrescens loevyanus Hort.; T. lanicaulis Hort., in part, non Ronn.; T. tracicus Hort., non Velen.)
Native country: Flannery proposed this cultivar name because of the lack of definitive information on the placement of this taxon of cultivation.
General habit: ‘Long-leaf Gray’ is broad-spreading to 25 cm tall, stems decumbent, hairy all around.
Leaves: Leaves are shortly stalked, gray-green, narrow and widest at the center with the ends equal or tending to be broad and rounded at the apex, 8 to 20 mm long, 2 to 3 mm wide, tapering to the apex or rather blunt. Inflorescence is loosely head-shaped or slightly elongated, about 1.5 cm in diameter.
Flowers: Calyx is 3.5 to 4.5 mm long, hairy, often purplish on dorsal side. Corolla is pale purple, 5 to 6.5 mm long.
T. ‘Woolly-stemmed Sharp’ (T. lanuginosus auct., in part, non Mill.; T. lanicaulis Hort. in part, non Ronn.)
Native country: Another taxon found only in cultivation.
General habit: Stems to 30 cm tall, decumbent or ascending, terminating in an inflorescence, hairy all around.
Leaves: Leaves are almost stalkless, pale greenish gray, with a sharp, biting, somewhat antiseptic scent, narrow but widest at the center with ends equal to narrowed at the base, 8 to 13 mm long, 2 to 2.5 mm wide, tapering to the apex or blunt at the apex, with scattered long hairs above and below.
Flowers: Inflorescence is elongate, weakly branched. Calyx is 2.5 to 3 mm long, hairy. Corolla lavender, scarcely exceeding the calyx. Only female plants are known.
ajowan
Family: Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)
Growth form: annual to 3 feet (90 cm)
Hardiness: cannot withstand frost
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: light garden loam, pH 7.4 to 7.8, average 7.6
Propagation: seeds in spring, 11,000 seeds per ounce (388/g)
Culinary use: Indian and Ethiopian cuisine but not GRAS
Craft use: none
Landscape use: vegetable garden
French: carvi oriental
German: Ostindischer Kümmel, Ajowan
Dutch: oost-indische kummel
Italian: ajowan
Sanskrit: yamani
Indian: ajuan, omum
The genus Trachyspermum is similar to Carum, caraway, and includes about 20 species ranging from tropical and northeast Africa to central Asia and western China. The generic name means “rough-seeded,” while the specific epithet was adapted from the Sanskrit name. Alternate English names include white cumin, bishop’s weed (mistakenly, for its resemblance to Ammi majus), and Ethiopian caraway.
The seeds (actually fruits) of this annual are used to impart a flavor of thyme in Indian savories, particularly ompadi, namkin boodi, and sev. In Ethiopia the fruits are used to flavor berbere (a spice rub)and injera (wet bread) and are also used in the preparation of katikala, an alcoholic drink. The essential oil of the fruits is antifungal from the content of thymol, a simple phenol. Ajowan fruits also yield an antioxidant. K. C. Sristava of Odense University in Denmark found that the fruits of ajowan show antiaggregatory effects and alter arachidonic acid metabolism in human platelets in vitro. K. Aftab and his associates at the University of Karachi in Pakistan found that the fruits of ajowan contain a calcium channel blocker-like constituent (thymol) which exerts hypotensive and brady-cardiac effects in rats. However, in spite of its wide use in Indian and Ethiopian foods, ajowan has never achieved GRAS status (probably because no one ever lobbied for it).
In India, the commercial sowing rate is 2.2 to 3.1 pounds per acre (2.5 to 3.5 kg/ha). For the home gardener, this translates to about 12 to 16 inches between plants, but because of the lax growth and uneven germination of culinary ajowan, which is easily obtained from food stores specializing in Indian foods, seeds may be planted about 3 to 6 inches apart or even closer. Seedlings appear within seven to fifteen days. Application of nitrogen at the rate of 71 pounds per acre (80 kg/ha) is recommended. Additional potassium and sulfur may be needed depending upon soil tests. Flowering takes place in about two months, and harvesting commences when flower heads turn brown. The plants are then dried in sheds and the fruits separated from the chaff. Collar- and root-rot (Sclerotium rolfsii) affect ajowan, and the spice beetle (Stegobium paniceum) attacks the stored seeds.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of Indian ajowan fruit is dominated by 45 to 61 percent thymol, 16 to 24 percent p-cymene, and 12 to 23 percent gamma-terpinene, providing a thyme-like odor. A new chemotype of ajowan was isolated from northeast India with 46 percent carvone and 38 percent limonene. Ethiopian plants have fruits with 69 percent carvacrol, 11 percent alpha-phellandrene, and 10 percent alpha-terpinene.
T. ammi (L.) Sprague, Kew Bull. 1929:228. 1929 [T. copticum (L.) Link, Carum copticum (L.) Hiern. in Oliver].
Native country: Ajowan is native to Asia, North Africa, and Europe.
General habit: Ajowan is a smooth annual herb 15 to 90 cm high.
Leaves: Leaves are feather-like and divided two to three times.
Flowers: Flowers have white or pinkish petals and are arranged in an umbel.
Fruits/seeds: The fruit is egg-shaped with parallel sides.
fenugreek
Family: Fabaceae (Leguminosae)
Growth form: annual to about 1 foot (30 cm)
Hardiness: does not withstand frost
Light: full sun
Water: evenly moist
Soil: average garden loam, pH 5.5 to 8.2, average 7.3
Propagation: seeds in spring, 1588 seeds per ounce (56/g)
Culinary use: maple flavoring, curries
Craft use: none
Landscape use: short-lived in the border, best grown in vegetable garden
French: fenugrec
German: Bockshornklee, Schabzieberklee, Griechische Hausamen
Dutch: fenegriek, hoornklaver
Italian: fienogreco
Spanish: alholva, fenugreco, heno griego
Portuguese: alforva feno greco, fenacho
Swedish: bockhornsklöver
Russian: pazhitnik
Chinese: hu-lu-pa, k’u-tou
Japanese: koroha
Arabic: hulabaha, hulba
Fenugreek lends a subtle but distinctive flavor of celery and maple to food and is an important ingredient today in the cuisines of India and Pakistan, but it has been used since the times of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. The herb produces golden, quadrangular seeds that are crushed or powdered and used in breads and with meats, poultry, and vegetables; the powdered seed is also a staple ingredient in curries.
As the less-well known food of South Asia becomes more accessible in the United States, this visually humble but fast-growing member of the pea family is likely to be a more familiar sight in herb gardens. A maple-syrup flavored extract from fenugreek seed has already found its way into candy, baked goods, pickles, gelatins, puddings, beverages, ice cream, and syrups manufactured in America. Its sprouted seeds are also used in salads, while the leaves are infrequently consumed as a potherb.
Recent medical research suggests the fenugreek seeds may reduce blood sugar in Type II (non-insulin dependent or maturity-obesity onset) diabetics and lower blood cholesterol. Zecharia Madar and associates in Israel found that consumption of 0.5 ounces (15 g) of powdered fenugreek soaked in water significantly lowers postprandial blood glucose levels in Type II diabetes. A study done in India by R. D. Sharma and associates found that consumption of 1.75 ounces (50 g) daily of powdered fenugreek seed in soup significantly decreases LDL cholesterol while significantly increasing HDL cholesterol. In Type I diabetes, R. D. Sharma and associates in India found that 3.5 ounces (100 g) of fenugreek flour in bread consumed daily by human volunteers significantly reduces fasting blood sugar and improves the glucose tolerance test. This hypoglycemic (blood glucose lowering) effect seems to be primarily from an alkaloid, trigonelline. Fenugreek also promotes significant wound healing as discovered by A. D. Taranalli and I. J. Kuppast in India. A leaf extract has been found to be antinociceptive in rats.
Trigonella foenum-graecum
Fenugreek also has historical interest in the United States because it was an ingredient of Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound, according to the original formula in her own handwriting:
12 ounces fenugreek seeds
8 ounces unicorn root (Aletris farinosa L.)
6 ounces life root (Senecio aureus L.)
6 ounces black cohosh [Cimicifuga racemosa (L.) Nutt.]
6 ounces pleurisy root (Asclepias tuberosa L.) enough alcohol to make 100 pints
No doubt the alcohol was the principal active ingredient, since none of these ingredients is sufficiently active to account for the properties attributed to Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound.
Fenugreek is an easy-to-grow, but shortlived, annual. The English common name is derived from the Latin faenum-graecum, which means “Greek hay.” This Latin name refers to its early use as a food for livestock, and fenugreek is still used today as a self-improving, winter cover crop.
The genus Trigonella includes about 80 species found in the Mediterranean, Macaronesia, South Africa, and Australia. Fenugreek is a wiry, pea-like plant that possesses green, cloverlike leaves and a distinctive triangular white flower, ½ inch long, that is almost stalkless. Trigonella (Greek for “three-angled”) refers to this flower. The plant has a stem with subtle but sparse hairs and grows 1 to 2 feet high. Bean-like, curved pods 3 to 7 inches long are produced and hold ten to twenty seeds.
India, France, Egypt, and Argentina raise fenugreek commercially in open, sunny fields, much like American farmers produce wheat and rye. The cultivation research we have located originates in India and Hungary and is somewhat incomplete and often lacks specifics. We have tempered this research with our own garden experience to reach our recommendations.
Soil for growing fenugreek should drain well and have moderate to high fertility; a sidedressing of about half a pound of 10-10-10 fertilizer per 100 square feet at first flowering increases yields. In dry, hot areas, irrigation may be necessary to keep plants from becoming stunted. Early planting is recommended so that the plant may mature before the heat of August.
Fenugreek seed is sometimes slow to germinate; seed soaked in lukewarm water overnight will germinate faster. Once soil warms to 50 to 55°F (about the time tomatoes are planted), fenugreek seed is broadcast at a rate of about 18 seeds per square foot. Alternatively, sow 2 to 3 inches apart in rows 12 to 18 inches apart (the commercial rate is 31 pounds per acre or 35 kg/ha in India); cover seed with about1/8 to ½ inch of soil. A single plant should yield thirty to forty pods. Seeds ripen about four to five weeks after flowering and are harvested when the drying pods become a lighter green and the seeds are mature; pods should be harvested before they become brittle and open on their own to scatter seeds on the ground. Plants are often yanked from the ground and taken to another location to separate the pods from the plant and the seeds from the pods. The home gardener may use a screen in a warm room to make drying easier. The seeds may be separated from the dried pods by placing them in a strong paper bag and pressing it several times with a heavy rolling pin. The seeds can then be winnowed free with a vacuum cleaner; lay the seeds out on newspaper and lower the nozzle slowly until the chaff is picked up, leaving the heavier seeds behind.
Common diseases that may attack fenugreek plants are root rot, powdery mildew, downy mildew, and cercospora leaf spot (Cercospora traversiana). Sulfur dust is often recommended by researchers in India to control powdery mildew. Aphids, thrips, and leaf-eating caterpillars may also cause damage.
Fenugreek has GRAS status in the following amounts: as an extract (7 to 500 parts per million), seed (15 to 800 ppm), and oleoresin (7 to 500 ppm).
Important chemistry: The characteristic aroma of fenugreek seeds is due to sotolone (3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethyl-2(5H)-furanone). One analysis of the aerial parts of fenugreek found 28 percent delta-cadinene, 12 percent alpha-cadinol, 11 percent gamma-eudesmol, and 11 percent alpha-bisabolol. Seeds and leaves of fenugreek are rich in diosgenins, widely used materials for steroid manufacture.
T. foenum-graecum L., Sp. pl. 777. 1753.
Native country: Fenugreek is native to southern Europe and Asia but widely naturalized.
General habit: Main stems are 10 to 50 cm long, sparsely hairy.
Leaves: Three leaflets/leaf are 20 to 50 × 10 to 15 mm, parallel-sided with narrowed base, and edged with small teeth.
Flowers: Flowers are solitary or paired, almost stalkless. Calyx is 6 to 8 mm long, the teeth about as long as the tube. Corolla is 12 to 18 mm long, yellowish white tinged with violet at the base.
Fruits/seeds: The fruit is a long, dry bean-like fruit opening along two lines, 60 to 110 × 4 to 6 mm, erect or spreading, linear, somewhat curved, smooth or becoming smooth with age, with longitudinal veins. Seeds are about 5 × 3 mm, quadrangular, somewhat compressed, yellow or pale brown, finely pimpled.
California bay
Family: Lauraceae
Growth form: tree to 147 feet (45 m)
Hardiness: marginally hardy to Zone 8
Light: full sun
Water: moist but not wet; can withstand minor drought
Soil: well-drained garden loam
Propagation: seeds or cuttings
Culinary use: not recommended (not GRAS and toxic)
Craft use: wreaths
Landscape use: specimen tree, container plant
Umbellularia californica
This genus of only one species derives its name from the Latin umbella, an umbel, from the shape of the inflorescence on the tree. California bay or California laurel is very similar to Grecian bay (Laurus nobilis), and some forms of both are superficially identical but readily separable by chemical and microscopic botanical characters. California bay would be a great bay substitute for cooking were it not for the fact that it has no GRAS status and the principal constituent, umbellulone, is toxic to the central nervous system when eaten and causes convulsive sneezing, headaches, and sinus irritation when inhaled deeply. Despite this, one major U.S. spice company markets California bay, and Californians insist this is the only bay. Other than that, California bay is a great ornamental troubled by few insects and other pests (deer usually avoid it unless starving).
If you grow California bay as an ornamental, it is easily pruned and used in the same fashion as Laurus nobilis. It is only marginally hardy to Zone 8. It normally grows in the wild in various soils under both cool-humid and hot-dry atmospheric conditions in full sun. It responds to the same pot culture as Grecian bay.
Important chemistry: The essential oil of California bay is characterized by 5 to 39 percent umbellulone and 19 to 28 percent 1,8-cineole, providing a spicy bay-like note.
U. californica (Hook. & Arnott) Nutt., N. Amer. Sylv. 1:87. 1842.
Native country: California bay is native from southwestern Oregon (Coos County) south to San Diego County, California.
General habit: California bay is an evergreen tree to 45 m.
Leaves: Leaves are parallel-sided to lance-shaped, 3 to 10 × 1.5 to 3 cm, obtusely pinched tips and wedge-shaped to subrounded bases. Surfaces of the blades are finely netted, shining dark green above, paler green and dull beneath.
Flowers: Flowers are greenish yellow in clusters of four to nine.
Fruits/seeds: Fruits are olive-like, 2 to 2.5 cm long, greenish, becoming brownish purple when mature.
garden valerian
Family: Valerianaceae
Growth form: herbaceous perennial to 5 feet (1.5 m)
Hardiness: hardy to Zone 4
Light: part shade preferred
Water: moist; standing moisture tolerated
Soil: well-drained garden loam rich in organic matter
Propagation: seeds in spring
Culinary use: limited
Craft use: cat toys
Landscape use: rear of herbaceous border or herb garden
French: valériane
German: Baldrian
Dutch: valeriaan
Italian: valeriana
Spanish: valeriana
Portuguese: valeriana
Swedish: vändelrot
Russian: valer’yana
Garden valerian is known by a number of other garden names: garden heliotrope, cat’s valerian, setwell, or St. George’s herb. It is an herbaceous perennial with dark green, deeply cut leaves and terminal pinkish white flower heads on stems up to 5 feet (1.5 m) high and smelly rhizomes and roots. The odor of the rhizomes and roots has been described as balsamic-root-like, warmwoody, and somewhat sour with distinct animal undertones of musk. This is an aroma that many cats find irresistible and as with catnip, if you don’t like cats, this is not the plant to grow, as it also induces the “catnip response” (see Nepeta cataria). We have even observed cats locating and pawing at the fragrant rhizomes and roots of garden valerian in the middle of winter when a foot of snow lay upon the ground! The rhizomes and roots of garden valerian are also reputed to be equally attractive to rats, and the success of the Pied Piper of Hamelin has been attributed to the use of garden valerian.
The genus Valeriana includes about 250 species of the northern temperate region, South Africa, and the Andes. The generic name may be derived from the Latin valere, to be strong or vigorous, alluding to its medieval medicinal use. The specific name, officinalis, of course, refers to its medicinal qualities. The Swedish name, vändelrot, refers to the use of this herb by the invading Teutonic tribes, collectively called the Vandals.
The extract of garden valerian is considered GRAS at 24 to 100 ppm, while the essential oil is GRAS at 0.02 to 17 ppm. Garden valerian extract and oil are employed in flavoring tobaccos, beer, and other products. In the Middle Ages, when musk and animalic notes were more widely appreciated, garden valerian was used for seasoning meats and stews.
Valeriana officinalis
The primary use of garden valerian today, though, is as a mild, nonaddictive sedative to combat insomnia, excitability, and exhaustion. This is marketed widely in Europe, particularly Germany. An advantage of valerian tincture as a sedative is that it does not interact with alcohol, and overdosage is highly unlikely. The sedative action has been attributed to a group of unstable compounds called valepotriates, as well as GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), gluta-mine, valerenic acid, valerenone, eugenyl esters, and isoeugenyl esters. The reader is referred to the two excellent reviews by Hobbs and Foster for further considerations of the medicinal application of garden valerian.
While garden valerian is extremely variable in its botanical characteristics, only the species is available. Two listed cultivars are ‘Anthos’, advertised as yielding up to 1 ton per acre (2.5 tonnes/ha), and ‘Select’, which has a more uniform habit best suited for mechanical harvesting. Red valerian is not V. officinalis; it is actually Centranthus ruber (L.) DC. (which also exists in a white-flowered form, giving rise to the oxymoron “white red valerian”).
Garden valerian is easily grown in moist but well-drained garden loam in part to full sun. Allowed to reseed, it will proliferate in moist forest margins and edges of fields. Seed germinates readily in about five weeks with constant moisture but lose their viability after two years. Division of old clumps is easy in early spring. Space plants about 16 inches (40 cm) between plants in rows about 16 inches (40 cm) apart. Fertilizers high in nitrogen are required.
Valepotriate content, the active constituent, decreases in autumn, while essential oil content is not correlated with the season. The best time to harvest the rhizomes and roots is at the end of September of the first year, in the morning during a cool period. This is the time the roots reach 85 percent of the maximum root weight and contain about 0.8 percent valepotriates and 0.5 percent essential oil. For maximum essential oil, spring harvest is best. Drying is best accomplished, after washing the roots free of soil, at 104°F (40°C) with an air flow of 0.25 kg/m2. For home or commercial use, fresh-dried rhizomes are ground to a coarse powder. One part (by weight) is macerated for up to two weeks in 5 parts (by volume) of a menstruum consisting of 1 part distilled water to 3 parts 95 percent grain alcohol; press and filter for use. The most effective extraction method involves pre-moistening the dried drug in water; shaking or vibrating the drug and menstruum decreases extraction time from four days under normal conditions to only 30 minutes, but then repeat three successive extractions at 1.6 hours, 1 hour, and 1 hour, respectively.
Important chemistry: The characteristic sour odor of the rhizomes and roots of garden valerian is primarily due to small quantities of isovaleric acid. The dominant components of the essential oil of garden valerian rhizomes and roots are 2 to 51 percent bornyl acetate, 0 to 18 percent valeranone, trace to 16 percent valerenal, trace to 14 percent camphene, and 0 to 12 percent elemol. The attractant for cats is probably due to low levels of actinidine, a volatile alkaloid that is released from N-(2-para- hydroxy-phenyl)ethyl-actinidine upon drying and heating. The valepotriates, a series of poorly characterized iridoid epoxides, vary from 0.2 to 6 percent in the roots of garden valerian (see Houghton for a more thorough discussion of the rhizome/root chemistry of garden valerian). The rhizomes and roots also have a heavy concentration of unusual sesquiterpenoids. Analysis of the atmosphere around garden valerian flowers reveals primarily 15 to 24 percent lavandulyl isovalerate and 4 to 21 percent para-methyl anisole, providing a flowery anise-like note.
Valeriana officinalis is extremely variable with three subspecies, but subsp. officinalis is the one commonly cultivated.
V. officinalis L., Sp. pl. 31. 1753.
Native country: Garden valerian is native to most of Europe but has been naturalized in North America.
General habit: Garden valerian is a smooth herbaceous perennial arising from a simple rhizome. The stem is 30 to 150 cm, usually solitary, robust, grooved, hairy or smooth.
Leaves: Leaves are lobed like a feather with three to five pairs of leaflets; opposite leaflets are linear, lance-shaped, or elliptical, smooth-edged or toothed.
Flowers: Flowers are arranged in a compound inflorescence, pink or white.
Fruits/seeds: Fruit is 2 to 5 mm, hairy or smooth, with a feathery crown.
Japanese horseradish
Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)
Growth form: herbaceous perennial to 16 inches (40 cm)
Hardiness: hardy to Zone 8
Light: 50 to 80 percent shade
Water: cool running water essential
Soil: organic, slightly alkaline
Propagation: offsets from rhizomes in spring
Culinary use: limited (not GRAS)
Craft use: none
Landscape use: stream edges
Japanese: wasabi
Japanese horseradish is sold in Asian food stores as a can of dried green powder. Add water, and presto, instant horseradish to add extra bite to such dishes as sashimi (raw fish), soba (cold buckwheat noodles), nigiri sushi (small kneaded ball of sour rice and fish slices), and norimaki sushi (Japanese sour rice wrapped in sheets of nori, or red seaweed, with cucumber and/or shiitake mushrooms). Japanese horseradish may also be used to decorate cucumber and carrots and, mixed with soy sauce, as a dip. Besides the green color, the Japanese insist that their wasabi has a flavor unmatched by European horseradish.
Wasabia japonica is a smooth, evergreen perennial superficially resembling a giant nasturtium. It demands the cool, running water of streams and springs in open woodlands for best cultivation. Large clumps are formed with large, long-stemmed, heart-shaped leaves to about 16 inches (40 cm). Ultimately, clusters of white mustard-like flowers are produced. The genus, whose name is derived from the native Japanese name, includes two species.
Superior taste is claimed when the water is slightly alkaline and where the temperature is maintained at 50 to 56°F (10 to 13°C); a spring-fed stream in a limestone area would be ideal. At higher temperatures the leaf and rhizome growth fall off substantially and more diseases are observed. In Japan, stream beds are artificially widened with rock walls and terraces.
Japanese growers recognize at least three cultivars based principally on the color of the rhizome (rootstock) and the leaf stalks: (1) a form with green leaf stalks and large, knobby greenish rhizomes having a strong pungency; (2) a form with reddish petioles with rhizomes of acceptable size and color but less vigorous and less resistant to cold; and (3) a form, called “white wasabi,” of less vigor, pungency, and green color. Japanese horseradish is propagated vegetatively by offsets separated from the rhizomes of two-year-old plants after the latter are dug for harvest, usually in June. The offsets are planted 10 inches (25 cm) apart in rows about 18 inches (45 cm) apart. Organic fertilizers rich in nitrogen are applied in November and March in Japan. Over two tons of Japanese horseradish rhizomes may be produced per acre (4,483 kg/ha) from two-year-old plants in Japan.
At the time of harvest the crop is initially prepared by digging, washing, and removing the leaves. In its simplest form, Japanese horseradish is obtained by grating the fresh rhizomes. While usually sold as a dried powder, the best storage of Japanese horseradish is by freezing. When the dried powder is rehydrated, it must be used immediately and does not store well.
While Japanese horseradish has been used for centuries in Japan, it has no GRAS status. As with European horseradish, too much Japanese horseradish may induce excessive sweating, confusion, and collapse. Hitomi Kumagai and his associates at Nihon University in Japan found that the isothiocyanates in Japanese horseradish inhibited platelet aggregation in vitro. One of the principal compounds responsible for the distinctive flavor of wasabi, 6-methylsulfinylhexyl isothiocyanate, has been demonstrated to be anticarcinogenic.
Important chemistry: In a solvent extract of Japanese horseradish, the dominant components are 81 to 90 percent allyl isothiocyanate and 3 to 13 percent 4-pentenyl isothiocyanate. As in conventional horseradish, these compounds normally exist in the plant as glucosinolates, or sugar-bound compounds, and are enzymatically acted upon by myrosinase with the cellular disruption produced by grating. Heating changes the chemical profile, so in an essential oil the dominant components are 39 percent 6-methylthiohexanonitrile and 15 percent 7-methylthioheptanonitrile.
W. japonica (Miq.) Matsumura, Index pl. jap. 2(2):161. 1912 [Eutrema wasabi (Sieb.) Maxim.].
Native country: Japanese horseradish is native to wet places along streams in mountains of Japan.
Wasabia japonica
General habit: Japanese horseradish is an herbaceous perennial with creeping, stout rhizomes; stems are ascending, 20 to 40 cm long, several-leaved.
Leaves: Leaves of the basal rosette have a long stalk and are heart-kidney-shaped, 8 to 15 cm long and as wide, rounded at the apex, undulate-toothed, the stalks dilated at the base. Leaves along the stem are stalked, broadly egg-shaped, 2 to 4 cm long, shallowly heart-shaped at the base.
Flowers: White mustard-like flowers are arranged in a simple inflorescence with bracts similar to the stem-leaves.
Fruits/seeds: Fruits are long pockets on 3 to 5 mm stalks.
mioga ginger
Family: Zingiberaceae
Growth form: herbaceous perennial to 10 feet (3 m)
Hardiness: hardy to Zone 7b
Light: part shade to full sun
Water: moist but not constantly wet
Soil: well-drained organic soil
Propagation: division of offsets in spring
Culinary use: limited (not GRAS)
Craft use: none
Landscape use: bold tropical look for herbaceous border or herb garden
Japanese: my
ga
The genus Zingiber includes about 85 species of herbs with aromatic rhizomes; their native habitat stretches from Indomalaysia to eastern Asia and tropical Australia. The leading economically important species is ginger, Z. officinale Roscoe. The generic name is derived from ancient Sanskrit.
Mioga ginger grows to about 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 m) in the average garden, but up to 10 feet (3 m) under optimum conditions, with fragrant rhizomes and bamboo-like leaves. For all its aerial abundance, however, the choice culinary portions are the young buds and the fleshy inflorescences that appear at the base of the leaves in the fall. The pale yellow flower clusters are usually pickled in salted rice vinegar and sake and then sliced for soups, stir-fry dishes, and sour dishes. A 4- to 6-inch (10 to 15 cm) layer of sawdust provides a substrate to locate and pick the buds. The young leaves and sheaths are minutely chopped and used as a garnish for soup, and raw fish. The young shoots are also blanched and used in soups, tempura, and as a spice for bean curd.
Zingiber mioga
Most species of the Zingiberaceae are not hardy except in tropical climates. However, mioga ginger is fully hardy to at least Zone 7. Provide the plant with good, humusy soil and part shade to full sun. Propagation is via the abundant rhizomes, which will quickly form a dense colony (but not to the point of being weedy). Plant about 10-inch (25 cm) long pieces in spring, about 4 inches (10 cm) deep and 16 inches (40 cm) apart, in rows. Harvest the flower buds in the second year. Yields in New Zealand have been 3.6 to 5.8 tons per acre (8 to 13 t/ha). One ornamental cultivar, ‘Dancing Crane’, has white stripes on the leaves and yellow flowers.
Mioga ginger is not considered GRAS.
Important chemistry: The principal components of the essential oil of the young buds of mioga ginger are 25 percent beta-phellandrene, 20 percent beta-elemene, and 10 percent beta-pinene. The red pigment on the floral bracts is malvidin 3-rutinoside.
Z. mioga (Thunb.) Roscoe, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 8:348. 1807.
Native country: Mioga ginger is native to Japan.
General habit: Mioga ginger is a smooth, rhi-zomatous perennial to 3 m.
Leaves: Leaves appear in a sheathed arrangement forming a false stem with lance-shaped to narrowly oblong blades 20 to 35 × 3 to 6 cm, pointed at the tip, narrowed to a short stalk-like base.
Flowers: Pale yellow flowers appear in August through October in fleshy, basal spikes.
