Herb of the year might surprise you
The 2012 Herb of the Year is interesting and a little unusual, though it fits the quality of what an herb is. It’s just not one most of us would smack our foreheads and say, “Oh, yeah.”
It’s the rose.
Most of us think of the herb as fleshy plants such as basil, sage, parsley or rosemary. These are strong culinary herb, growing relatively low to the ground, and not requiring much care.
Roses, on the other hand, can ramble all over the place, have woody tissue, and fight with tomatoes and turfgrass to see which one has the most insect and disease problems.
There are few plants as historical as roses, whether they decorate tombs, represent royal factions in century-long wars, or appear in art.
The basic rose has five sepals, five petals, one pistil (female part) and usually a group of five stamens (male parts). The ovary is considered inferior, which means the sepals and petals sit above the receptacle. It can get confusing, but that’s botany.
Members of the rose family all have that similar flower structure.
From the perennial flower world, we have Alchemilla, a green fuzzy leaf plant with greenish-yellow flowers. Aruncus or Goatsbeard is the other. That’s about it. There aren’t really rose-family annuals.
However, jump to the fruit world and the list explodes.
Apple, cherry, pear, peach, nectarine, almond, brambles (including raspberries and blackberries), and strawberries are all family members.
From the tree and shrub world, we have Cotoneaster, Crataegus or Hawthorn, Potentilla, Pyracantha or firethorn, Sorbus or Mountain Ash, and Spirea.
Of course, for Herb of the Year, we are dealing with the actual Rosa genera — the many forms of true roses.
The wonderful thing about the rose family is that it hasn’t been butchered by DNA studies that have upended many plant families … yet.
From the herb standpoint, roses are used for culinary, fragrance and medicinal purposes.
Two parts of the plants are used more than any other. The rose hip is the main source of medicinal and culinary use. Flowers are used in the fragrance industry with a by-product for cooking.
That wonderful crossword clue of “rose essential oil” is attar. It’s what ends up distilled for fragrance.
Most roses have some fragrance, though there is an interesting correlation between fragrance, number of prickles or thorns, number of petals, and how often the flower blooms.
Bill & Sheila’s A-Z of herbs
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