I need some help. Please. I can't identify this herb that is growing in the vegetable garden. There's a lovely, healthy clump of it and at first I thought it was chamomile, until I grew some myself and realized they look very different.
The flowers are about an inch across, and the plant itself is about two feet tall. The leaves taste unpleasantly bitter, so that can't be the part of the plant you use!
9 comments:
My best guess is chamomile... the small white-yellow flowers for tea. The leaves look like chrysanthemum leaves.
What makes you think it is a herb? I'll check my books...
What makes you think it is a herb? I'll check my books...
I think it's a herb because it's growing in a bed we inherited that has nothing but herbs in it. I don't think it's chamomile (that was my first guess, too) because I grew some from seed and both the flowers and leaves are quite different.
I've been hunting through my books, too, and the closest I've been able to get is "snowy tansy", which is different from regular tansy. But that seems awfully obscure - I mean what do you use tansy for?!
How about Feverfew:
"leaves yellow green and pungent, flowers small white daisies with prominent yellow centers in dense clusters... a bitter flavoured herb used as a tonic and for indigestion, popular for migraines, poulitce for limb and joint aches, insect repellant...fresh leaves may cause mouth ulcers...self seeds easlily (rampant)" Your leaves look right but your flowers are fluffier; maybe feverfew comes in a 'double' variety. Check for Google images.
Jean, you're amazing! I am quite sure you're right - it's feverfew. Richter's sells a "White Pompom" variety of feverfew with double blossoms, which might be the one I've got. And feverfew is in the same family as chamomile, which explains why they look so similar.
Good detective work! Now I'm trying to figure out how to use it, since it's apparently good for not only migraines, but arthritis and asthma!
Tansy is a super bee forage. If you have it, consider yourself very lucky, because it needs a minimum of three feet of topsoil in which to thrive.
But feverfew is good too. Have fun with it!
My sage is blooming too! Isn't it a beautiful color?
I believe tansy and feverfew are realted...
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