Description: An annual plant with an erect, branched stem 40-50 cm high. Leaves are sessile and hairy. Large, orange-yellow terminal flower-heads appear from June till autumn. Cultivated plants often flower profusely. Fruits are small, ridged or crescent-like involuted achenes, spiky on the dorsal side.

Origin and Distribution: Native to the Mediterranean region, and cultivated throughout Europe. Only rarely found wild. Grows in all moist soils, but requires full sun. It is propagated from seed. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: A perennial plant with branched, almost woody, brown root-stock. Stem erect, angular, up to 160 cm high, terminating in a branched panicle. Leaves are oblong-ovoid, pinnately divided, with toothed segments. Small yellow flowers, about 10 mm across, flower from July to September. Individual florets ripen to small achenes.

Distribution: Common in Europe, the USA and Asia. Abundant on waste ground and along streams, ridges and roadsides. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: A perennial plant with a branching rootstock; from it rises a basal rosette of ternate leaves on long petioles, and fruiting stalks growing only slightly above the leaves. Stems are poorly branched, bearing several white flowers which appear successively from April till August. Numerous tiny ovaries ripening into strawberries (which are false fruits; actually enlarged pulpy receptacles holding numerous seed-like achenes). Ripe strawberries are pleasantly sweet and juicy with a delicious scent.

Origin and Distribution: Native to Europe and temperate regions of Asia, growing in clearings, deciduous woodland, on stony hillsides, in ditches and meadows. Found in lowlands as well as in mountains. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: An evergreen climber clinging to surfaces by means of adventitious roots. The woody stem is much branched, the leaves conspicuously dimorphous: on the sterile, trailing stems the leaves are alternate, palmately lobed, leathery and glossy with marked light venation; the fertile, erect stems bear narrow, ovoid leaves growing in a spiral around the axis; the venation is inconspicuous. On the fertile branches no adventitious roots occur. Flowers are yellowish green, in umbels, appearing from August to October. The fruit is a black berry which ripens in winter. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: A vigorous perennial climber with a prostrate, branching rootstock and numerous roots. Stems are up to 6 m long, twining, square and tough, covered with rough, spiky hairs. The rough leaves on long petioles are variable in shape, from cordate to three-lobed, coarsely serrate. The hop has separate male and female plants, flowering from May till July. The yellow male flowers are arranged in axillary or apical clusters. The female flowers are pendulous, scaly, cone-like, light green during flowering time, pale yellow when mature, bearing golden-yellow glands filled with lupulin. In hop gardens only the female plants are cultivated, as only the fruits, or hops, are used. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: A subtropical evergreen shrub up to 3 m high, with numerous coppice shoots by which the plant naturally rejuvenates itself. Leather) leaves are deep green and slightly serrated. Pedicellate flowers are whitish tc yellowish, with 5 petals and numerous (about 200) stamens with bright yellow anthers and trifid stigma. Fruit is a brown, leathery capsule containing large oily seeds. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: An evergreen tropical tree, about 8-12 m high. Leaves are ellipsoid, 7 —20 cm long. Yellow flowers, with lingulate petals approximately 7 cm long, usually form clusters on older wood. Fruit is similar to olives; ripe fruit is black, containing several flat seeds.

Origin and Distribution: Originally grew wild only in Malaysia; now cultivated in numerous tropical countries. The main producers of the cananga volatile oils were the Philippines, later Java. At present Reunion has a production monopoly. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: An annual plant with erect, branched, smooth stems becoming woody during the ripening period. Reaches a height of 100-150 cm, according to the variety and habitat. Leaves are mostly oblong-lanceolate, dentate to serrate. Orange tubular florets form flower-heads about 1.5 to 3 cm in diameter. Fruit is an oblong glossy achene with 4 slightly prominent ribs on the surface. Each achene contains one oily seed. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: An annual plant with a thin, spindle-shaped root and erect, branched stem. When cultivated, it can reach more than 50 cm in height.Leaves finely dissected, sessile. Terminal flower-heads have white peripheral ray florets and yellow tubular disc florets. Receptacles are hollow, unlike those of other related species. In Europe it flowers from May till September. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: A perennial plant with a scaly underground bulb (corm) about the size of a walnut. Linear leaves with a white central nerve and a short flower-bearing stem grow from the corm in spring. The flower-stem terminates in a pale violet flower with six regular petals. The typical pistil has an inferior ovary and style branching out into three orange stigmas. The dried stigmas with a portion of the style are the parts used. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: The cultivated carrot is a biennial plant with a thick, pulpy, usually orange taproot and petiolate, segmented leaves. In the second year an erect stem, branched in its upper part, appears and terminates with an umbel of yellow-white flowers flowering from May till August. The fruit is a spiny achene. The wild carrot, from which the cultivated variety derives, is a common European weed. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: A fragrant tropical grass 120-150 cm high, forming massive tufts. Reproduced by root division, as it rarely forms seeds.

Origin and Distribution: Native to tropical Asia where it has long been grown around houses as a simple means of perfuming the air. Several varieties are cultivated in plantations in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Read the rest of this entry »