Jaime
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Need help identifying an herb

Hi, I need help identifying the herb in the picture. Thanks!
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rainbowgardener
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Hmmm.... I thought this was going to be easy, but it isn't quite. The bottom picture looks like lavender, though it won't enlarge for me, so I can't see the flowers close up. Are these both the same plant?

The first picture doesn't look quite right for lavender which usually makes a flower spike with the little flowers clustered close together. But there are different varieties of lavender and if it is growing with not enough sun it might stretch out.

Other possibilities would be Russian tarragon and rosemary, which both look similar with purple flowers.

What does it smell like? Those three possibilities all have very distinctive scents.

Jaime
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It's definitely not lavender. I bought it last year at an Herb sale and lost the tag. It's perennial because it came back but I have no idea what it is. Lol
It doesn't smell like Rosemary. It's too big to be tarragon?

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rainbowgardener
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OK, I believe you, but just out of curiosity, why do you say "definitely not lavender"? Because of the scent?

Jaime
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It's Hyssop! A friend helped me figure it out. Thanks!

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rainbowgardener
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Good job! Not the anise hyssop I am familiar with, but true hyssop, Hyssopus officinalis. The officinalis denotes plants that had known medicinal properties (known by Europeans, that is!) at the time when Linnaeus was inventing the system of two part Latin names.

I don't think I have ever seen true hyssop. Is it fragrant?

Susan W
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Thanks for the pics! I'm growing hyssop and it hasn't started to bloom yet so am getting anxious, and some pretties to look forward to.

I have the anise hyssop (agastache) and it is one of my standards at the farmers market table. This year started the hyssop seeds. Plants doing great. A customer bought one earlier in the season, planted and she reported blooming. (she does some medicinal tinctures and salves). I never associated the 'offininalis' with medicinal, but more going back to the original plant.

Jaime
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It has a mild scent. It's hard to describe, a bit musky or peppery.
I looked it up and medicinally is used for coughs and respiratory conditions. I bought it at a rare plant sale so that explains it. Lol

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rainbowgardener
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Here's what wiki says about officinalis:

The word officinalis literally means "of or belonging to an officina", the storeroom of a monastery, where medicines and other necessaries were kept. Officina was a contraction of opificina, from opifex (gen. opificis) "worker, maker, doer" (from opus "work") + -fex, -ficis, "one who does," from facere "do, perform". When Linnaeus invented the binomial system of nomenclature, he gave the specific name "officinalis", in the 1735 (1st Edition) of his Systema Naturae, to plants (and sometimes animals) with an established medicinal, culinary, or other use.

Officinalis, officinale, officinarum, all adjectives, are the same word with different endings and they all mean used in medicine.



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