Category Archives: herbs

The leftovers of 2020

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Do you still have a bunch of celery leftover from Thanksgiving in the back of your fridge? With no holiday parties this year, you won’t be able to sneak it onto a holiday crudités platter. You could assemble silly little peanut butter and celery reindeer snacks, but that would just generate messier leftovers. Katherine tells you why you should put it all into a very elegant silky soup for the grownups.

Some of my happiest teaching days begin when I drag a rattling cartload of vegetables and razor blades over the paving stones and across the quad to my classroom. Then, for a couple of hours, edible roots and stems and leaves are handled, poked, hacked at, licked, bitten into, and passed between lab partners. Some of them become projectiles. Most become snacks right there. Potatoes fall into backpacks to be cooked later in the dorm. By the time we clean up, the scant inedible scraps fit into one small bag that I can tip inconspicuously into a campus compost bin.

It’s hard to imagine those days now. Before the pandemic, the only real potential hazards of these labs were food allergies and dissecting tool injuries. While I did provide hand wipes, nobody used them. Now after nine months of pandemic protocols, even just describing the labs triggers aversion.

Trying to teach botany during a pandemic is exactly why I ended up with leftover celery, and much too much of it. The week before Thanksgiving, Jeanne and I taught a virtual botany lab by video conference with some of the volunteers for the Friends of Edgewood Park. We imagined a plant-based Thanksgiving dinner and walked the volunteers through each of the main plant ingredients, while they dissected their own samples at home. The participants were good sports, and it was fun, even if nobody started a Brussels sprouts fight.

Celery (left) and fennel (right)

Celery (left) with close relative fennel (right)

After the event, it was a boon to have the remaining potatoes, sweet potatoes, herbs, leeks, oranges, green beans, and cranberries I had gathered for the demonstration. They were mostly still intact and free from community spittle, and I had plans for each of them. But then there were also those two imposing bundles of celery – stringy, strong tasting, and too long for the fridge. There was nobody I could send them home with. I certainly did not want to eat that much raw celery. Braising it à la Julia Child was no more appealing as I have always hated cooked celery.

Or so I thought. After consulting with Jeanne, a genius with umbel-bearing species, I improvised a basic celery and potato soup and added a little bit of the leftover rosemary. Slow cooking and a whirl in the blender transformed it into something silky and rich and delicious, without any of the strong overcooked green flavor I associate with celery chunks in soup. The recipe is below. But how did this simple treatment completely change the celery flavor?

base of a bunch of celery, showing leaf arrangement

Base of a bunch of celery, trimmed to show leaf arrangement

Fortunately for us all, the amazing Harold McGee has just published an instant classic, Nose Dive: a Field Guide to the World’s Smells. For his book, McGee has compiled table after table of the dominant smells (and their source molecules) for a wide array of vegetables and herbs, including celery. His painstaking work helped me understand why I should stop omitting this complicated species from my mirepoix.

From heavy scented to heaven scented

Raw celery has a fresh green scent to match its crisp texture, but it’s not bland, and it won’t hide behind the rest of the crudités on the platter. Its scientific name is Apium graveolens, and while the genus name has something to do with bees, the species name means “heavy-scented.” Its distinct celery smell comes largely from a volatile molecule called sedanenolide, which is a type of phthalide (McGee 2020). As assertive as it can be, this molecule affects our perception even at concentrations below what we can detect. One study found that a small amount of sedanenolide added to chicken broth raised all eleven measured positive flavor qualities relative to plain broth, as rated by a panel of tasters (Kurobayashi et al. 2008). So in addition to contributing a bit of its own flavor, the sedanenolide in celery boosts our sense that a dish is thick, savory, and complex.

Sedanenolide is not altered chemically by boiling, although it is volatile so some of it probably evaporates when celery is cooked. But cooking celery also transforms some of its chemical components to generate a completely different flavor arising from my new favorite molecule, sotolon.

Sotolon is described as tasting like fenugreek, which may not be helpful information if you have never tasted fenugreek by itself. Fenugreek seeds taste like maple syrup, but with a funky edge that veers into what some authors describe as “curry” at higher concentrations. It reminds me of the faint onion scent that lingers in the wood grain of a well used cutting board.

Fenugreek seeds. Click to enlarge.

Sotolon also contributes warm maple-like flavors to sherry and Madeira wines. I sometimes add it to oatmeal along with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger. You have to be careful with ground fenugreek, though, because the scent remains on your fingers all day, and you don’t want your oatmeal tasting faintly of onions. Reading about sotolon made me crave it, so I spiked some tea with fenugreek, and alongside the maple flavor, I caught occasional hints of celery seed in the steam.

Rosemary

Thanks to McGee’s masterful book, with an incredible index, I learned about some of my soup’s other scents as well. For example, cooked potatoes develop a nutty and earthy flavor because of pyrazines. Of course they also carry some sweetness from the carbohydrates stored in their flesh. Rosemary contains several interesting molecules that give it a resinous camphor scent, but in the soup, the rosemary notes mainly reflected its more woodsy compounds, borneol and peppery rotundone.

Borneol is a monoterpenoid that contributes to the scent of some pines and cypress, as well as ginger and citrus peels (McGee 2020). Rotundone is the sesquiterpenoid molecule that imparts a characteristic black-pepper aroma to Australian shiraz wines, and that’s where it was first discovered in 2008. It has since been identified in (of course) French syrah, some other wine varietals, black pepper, rosemary, basil, and even apple and mango (Geffroy et al. 2020). A substantial proportion of unlucky humans cannot smell rotundone at all. In one panel of French wine professionals and connoisseurs, 31% failed to detect it (Geffroy et al. 2017). Sadly, in COVID times we have all learned the term for this: anosmia.

With all that maple pepper woodsy pine aroma wafting from the bowl, no wonder my simple little three-plant soup turned out to taste like a walk in the woods on a sunny early winter’s day. Not bad for leftovers.

Portion of an advertisement from 1951 for Campbells soup

Portion of a 1952 advertisement from Better Homes and Gardens for Campbells soup. Click to enlarge.

Leftover celery and potato soup

  • Celery stalks (petioles, the part of the leaf below the flat compound blade)
  • Unpeeled chopped potatoes, at twice the volume of the celery. I used several small waxy types and a baking potato because they were left over from the virtual lab demonstration. The type may not matter that much
  • Several tablespoons of butter (1-2 tablespoons per bunch of celery)
  • Olive oil
  • Fresh sprig of rosemary, 2-3 inches long
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Chop celery petioles (“stalks”) and take note of their raw volume. Put the celery and the sprig of rosemary into a large stock pot and cook them slowly and gently in a generous dollop of butter, about one mounded tablespoon for each bunch of celery.

When the celery is very soft and translucent, but not brown, add chopped potatoes. The volume of potato  should be about twice that of the raw celery. Add a dash of olive oil and stir for a few minutes but do not brown the vegetables.

Add water to twice the depth of the vegetables and simmer until the potatoes are completely soft. Add salt and pepper.

Remove the rosemary sprig, but leave any leaves that have fallen off of the stem. Let the soup cool and purée it. Reheat to serve and add water to thin if necessary.

I was lucky enough to have some fresh goat cheese flavored with fennel pollen and black pepper from Pennyroyal Farm. I put a quenelle rustique (a plop) of cheese in the bottom of each bowl and poured the soup around it. Fennel is in the same family as celery, but its florets and pollen produce their own lovely set of volatile scents (Ferioli et al. 2017) that complement the celery without replicating it.

References

Ferioli, F., Giambanelli, E., & D’Antuono, L. F. (2017). Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill. subsp. piperitum) florets, a traditional culinary spice in Italy: evaluation of phenolics and volatiles in local populations, and comparison with the composition of other plant parts. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 97(15), 5369-5380.

Geffroy, O, Descôtes, J., Serrano, E., Calzi, M.L., Dagan, L., & Schneider, R. (2018). Can a certain concentration of rotundone be undesirable in Duras red wine? A study to estimate a consumer rejection threshold for the pepper aroma compound. Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research 24: 88-95.

Geffroy, O., Kleiber, D., & Jacques, A. (2020). May peppery wines be the spice of life? A review of research on the ‘pepper’aroma and the sesquiterpenoid rotundone. OENO One, 54(2), 245-262.

Kurobayashi, Y., Katsumi, Y., Fujita, A., Morimitsu, Y., & Kubota, K. (2008). Flavor enhancement of chicken broth from boiled celery constituents. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 56(2), 512-516.

McGee, H. (2020). Nose dive: A field guide to the world’s smells. New York, NY: Penguin Press.

Sage, rosemary, and chia: three gifts from the wisest genus (Salvia)

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This essay is our annual contribution to the Advent Botany essay collection curated by Alastair Cullham at the University of Reading. We highlight three charismatic species in the large genus Salvia (in the mint family, Lamiaceae): rosemary, sage, and chia.

Two Christmases ago we pointed out the current fad in decorating pineapples for Christmas. This year, some of our gentle readers may come across potted rosemary bushes that are trimmed into a cone to resemble a conifer. These are pleasant and ostensibly can be kept alive after the holiday season.

A rosemary shrub trimmed into a conifer shape. Photo from Pottery Barn.

A perhaps less pleasant holiday botanical encounter may include a Christmas tree-shaped Chia Pet.

Christmas tree Chia Pet. Photo from Amazon.

As far as Chia Pets go, this one is fairly innocuous. In my view, however, its only saving grace is that the chia plant itself is a fabulous taxon (Salvia hispanica), as is the rest of its large genus, Salvia, which also happens to include rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus). Rosemary of course is much more likely to make a holiday appearance as a culinary ingredient than a decoration, lovely as it is. In the kitchen it is frequently joined with its congener Salvia officinalis, usually just called garden sage. That the genus Salvia is responsible for half the taxa in the title of a Simon & Garfunkel album (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme), notwithstanding that Art Garfunkel looks like a Chia Pet on the cover, could provide enough taxonomic joy to justify leaving this examination of these plants here. The name “sage”, however, implies wisdom, and so like the wise men of old, I shall persevere.

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme album cover by Simon & Garfunkel (1966)

We’ll start by addressing the taxonomic elephant in the room that might otherwise distract learned readers: rosemary was only brought into the Salvia fold in 2017. Before then it was in its own small genus: Rosmarinus. The reason Rosmarinus is now Salvia is that the speciose Salvia was found to be paraphyletic: the pre-2017 conscription of the nearly 1000 species in the genus did not include all of the descendants of their most recent common ancestor. When the relationships between all the Salvia species and their closest relatives were plotted on a single phylogenetic tree, it was obvious that Rosmarinus and a few other genera should more naturally be considered Salvia, and Salvia was revised accordingly.

Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)

Another taxonomic bookkeeping item is to clarify that the sages in Salvia are only distant relatives of the sagebrushes and sageworts in the genus Artemisia, which is in the sunflower family Asteraceae (please see our Artemisia essay for more information about that genus, which includes the herb tarragon). The phylogenetic relationships of the major groups in Salvia from the most recent revision (Drew et al., 2017) is shown below.

Figure 2 from Drew et al. (2017): “(A) Composite chronogram of subtribe Salviinae (which contains Salvia and related taxa) based on chloroplast DNA sequences from previous molecular phylogenetic analyses. Asterisks denote nodes with low support and/or conflicting resolution among previous analyses. Salvia nomenclature follows subgeneric clades described here, including three tentatively named clades that await proper circumscription. Calibrations based on Drew & Sytsma (2012; See supplementary figure S4) (B) Circle cladogram framed on larger chronogram with weakly supported nodes collapsed, depicting species diversity and generalized staminal types within each clade of Salvia; modified after Walker & Sytsma (2007) and Walker et al. (2015).” S. elegans (pineapple sage), S. sclarea (clary sage), and S. hispanica (chia) are in the American subgenus Calosphace. Rosemary is in its own subgenus, Rosmarinus.

The phylogenetic diagram above (from Drew et al., 2017) shows locations where the flower anther structure evolved into a lever-like mechanism that aids in bee pollination by physically moving the two stamens into contact with the bee’s back when a bee enters the flower (see illustration below from Walker, Sytsma, Treutlein, & Wink, 2004).

Figure 2 from Walker et al 2004: “Flower and pollination of Salvia pratensis (Salvia clade I). A flower without the lever mechanism activated (A). As the pollinator enters the flower (B), the pollen is deposited on the back of the pollinator. As the pollinator enters an older flower (stamens removed from sketch, but remain present in flower) pollen is transferred (C). The posterior anther thecae forming the lever can be fused or free and in the subg. Leonia, produce fertile pollen”

The lever mechanism independently evolved three times within Salvia. Each of these evolutionary events was followed by rapid and prolific speciation driven by this innovation in pollination biology (Drew et al., 2017): the advent of the lever mechanism led to the radiation of around 500 species in the subgenus Calosphace in Central and South America; around 250 species evolved soon after the advent of the lever mechanism in the Salvia officinalis clade in the Mediterranean and Western Asia; and around 100 species radiated following the lever in Far East Asia in the Salvia glutinosa clade.

Sage (Salvia officinalis) flowering on my deck this summer

The bee-pollinated Salvia flowers are distinct from those pollinated by hummingbirds, which are more elongate and often red, like the flowers of pineapple sage (S. elegans), and have either evolutionarily lost the staminal lever mechanism or never had it in the first place.

Pineapple sage (Salvia elegans)

The parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme made famous by Simon & Garfunkel started their culinary careers in Europe. All but parsley are in the mint family (Lamiaceae; see our carrot top essay for a discussion of fun chemical relationships between the flavor compounds in the mint family and the parsley family, Apiaceae). This points to the profusion of aromatic mint family species common to the rocky shrublands covering much of Europe and western Asia (Rundel et al., 2016; Vargas, Fernández-Mazuecos, & Heleno, 2018).

Called “tomillar” in spanish, literally a field of wild thyme (Thymus vulgaris) and associated species growing in the Orusco de Tajuña hills (near Madrid. Spain). Other edible Lamiaceae can be found in this plant community, including Salvia rosmarinus, and Lavandula latifolia (a lavendar). Photo by Julia Chacón-Labella.

That broad area is one of the centers of Salvia species diversity, but the genus is globally widespread. The genus probably originated and dispersed first from African and then the Mediterranean (see the figure of Salvia distribution and putative dispersal history below from Will & Claßen-Bockhoff, 2017), but the full story of dispersal and species radiation within the genus requires more elucidation.  Numerous species of Salvia are utilized as culinary or medicinal herbs or garden ornamentals throughout its range.

Fig. 8 from Will et al. 2017: “Salvia s.l. in time and space. A: Distribution of Salvia s.l., putative migration routes and fossil sites; BLB = Bering Land Bridge; D = Dorystaechas; M= Meriandra; NALB = North Atlantic Land Bridge; P = Perovskia; R = Rosmarinus; Z = Zhumeria; white arrows indicate repeated colonization of S Africa and dispersal from the Eastern Cape to Madagascar; hatched arrows (dark grey) indicate the repeated colonization of the Canary Islands from two different mainland sources; red arrow illustrate the dispersal from East Asia to Eurasia reflected by S. glutinosa; black arrows correspond to dispersal events from the OW to America reflected by two distinct lineages; ? = route uncertain; template of the map provided by the German earth science portal (www.mygeo.info). B: Simplified phylogenetic tree; nodes discussed in the text are indicated by capital letters; colors reflect distribution areas. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)”

The phylogeny above shows the large number of American taxa in subgenera Calosphace and Audibertia. While many of these species have also been used as aromatic herbs and traditional medicines, the most famous of the American Salvias, chia, is known for its nutritious seeds (Jenks & Kim, 2013a). Chia is a name given to two species of Salvia: S. columbariae and S. hispanica. S. columbariae ranges from southern California to central Mexico, at which point the range of S. hispanica begins and extends to Guatemala. Indigenous groups throughout that range historically used both species of chia as a pre-Columbian staple food source. The Aztecs cultivated it, and 16th century Spanish codices indicate it may have been as widely utilized as maize (Cahill, 2003).

Chia nutlets (S. hispanica) and a dried sage (S. officinalis) leaf for scale

Technically, the chia “seeds” you can buy in the store (or harvest yourself) are fruits. The Salvia fruit, like those of all mint family species, is called a schizocarp. The ovary inside the flower has four chambers, called locules. Each locule matures into an independent, indehiscent nutlet. The shell (pericarp) of the nutlet is stratified into the same categories of outer fruit layers as are more familiar fleshy fruits (cuticle, epicarp, mesocarp, endocarp; see our pomegranate or apple essay for more details about fruit structure), but in the Salvia nutlet the outer fruit layers are dry and compressed and inseparable from the single seed inside the fruit (Capitani, Ixtaina, Nolasco, & Tomás, 2013). Salvia nutlets mature inside of papery fused calyces (see the photo below of sage nutlets and their cup-like persistent calyces).

Sage (Salvia officinalis) leaves and nutlets inside of papery, fused persistent calyces.

The word “chia” is derived from the Aztec language Nahuatl word for “oily,” a name bestowed because chia seeds do have a high oil content (Cahill, 2003). Chia oil is rich in the omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid, which has contributed to its recent fame as a modern health food. High alpha-linolenic acid content may be a general feature of the genus: other Salvia species, including S. officinalis, garden sage, have been shown to have high alpha-linolenic acid content in their seeds (Ben Farhat, Chaouch -Hamada, & Landoulsi, 2015).

Chia nutlets are also known for the gooey mucilage they exude when wet. This polysaccharide matrix is used as a food binder and thickener (Google “vegan egg replacement”). The production of mucilaginous diaspores (the dispersing agent, a fruit or a seed) is called myxocarpy. As Katherine discusses in her essay on okra, the flagship mucilaginous food plant, the purpose of the mucilage is likely water retention in the arid regions where these plants tend to come from. The mucilage might also act as a glue to bind the nutlet to the soil or to a dispersing animal’s fur—or to the terracotta substrate of a Chia Pet. Myxocarpy is most common in plants with small seeds growing in dry, arid areas, like those where Salvia species have radiated (Ryding, 1992).

Sage growing in coastal California, a Mediterranean-type ecosystem

Within the mint family, myxocarpy only occurs in the subfamily Nepetoideae. The subfamily, incidentally, gets its name from the catnip genus, Nepeta. Most if not all of the familiar edible herbs from the mint family are in this subfamily. Katherine has taken advantage of myxocarpy in this clade by serving soaked black basil (Ocimum basilicum) nutlets as a basil-scented vegan “caviar.”

Cat in the catnip (Nepeta cataria)

Salvia aroma and flavor–and I think the psychoactive properties of catnip for cats and known hallucinogen Salvia divinorum–comes from the terpenoids and phenolics that comprise their essential oils. The terpenoids are synthesized and stored in special glandular trichomes on the leaf surface (Schuurink & Tissier, 2019). Trichomes are hair-like extensions of the epidermis, although the glandular trichomes full of essential oil look more like water balloons than hair. Salvia species have other types of trichomes in addition to the glandular trichomes that are indeed much more hair-like and give the leaves of some Salvia a downy or prickly appearance (Kamatou et al., 2006).

Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a rosemary leaf. Spherical oil-filled glandular trichomes are found amongst the branched hair-like trichomes covering the lower surface of the leaf, which has a greater profusion of hairs and glands than the upper surface. When the glands are damaged or broken the aromatic essential oil is released. Magnification: x1550 (x381 at 10cm wide). Photo from https://psmicrographs.com/sems/flowers-plants/

We discussed trichome function extensively in one of our kiwi essays. The hair-like trichomes may serve the leaf by protecting it from excess solar radiation and wind and otherwise creating a more mild microclimate at the leaf surface to help it retain water.

Rosemary

Terpenoid biosynthesis requires numerous steps in which intermediate chemical products are modified by a series of specific enzymes and other proteins. Small changes in the genes responsible for those proteins can lead to big qualitative changes in the final terpenoid mix in the essential oil of a given taxon. We mammals are adept at discerning aroma differences between chemically similar terpenoids. For example, in on our carrot top essay we discussed the case of spearmint and caraway. The respective versions of the terpenoid carvone that characterize the essential oils of those plants differ only in the physical configuration of the same chemical elements, but they smell radically differently to us.

Clary sage (S. sclarea)

The function of the essential oil in the glandular trichomes, however, is not to improve human well being. Plants synthesize those lovely terpenoids as chemical defense against insect herbivores and microbial pathogens.  When the hair-like trichomes fail to stop the intruders, the glandular trichomes will explode on contact, drenching the would-be attackers in a caustic-but-fragrant deluge.

rosemary

The pharmacopeia of terpenoid aromas present in the mint family—bring to mind the scents of sages, rosemary, lavender, peppermint, spearmint, savory, thyme, oregano, marjoram, shiso, basil—owes its evolutionary origins certainly in part at least to the various selection pressures imposed on those herbal taxa by their pests. Within even commonly grown domesticated Salvia species, essential oil constituent variation leads to dramatic differences in aroma. For example, consider the differences among rosemary, garden sage, clary sage (S. sclarea), and pineapple sage (Salvia elegans), which has a notably fruity smell. The fruitiness is due in part to the presence of the terpenoids charcteristic of citrus, which are widespread across plants.

Garden sage (Salvia officinalis)

The Roman historian and natural scientist Pliny the Elder coined the name Salvia, which is derived from the Latin salvare, meaning to heal and save, and salvus, meaning uninjured or whole. The common English name “sage” of these plants ultimately comes from this same Latin root. In Pliny the Elder’s time, the Mediterranean Salvia species were considered healing herbs, good for treating colds and a variety of ailments. Salvia feature prominently in the ethnomedicine of every region in which it is found (South Africa: (Kamatou et al., 2006); Central and South America: (Jenks & Kim, 2013b)). There is a Chinese proverb that asks “How can a man grow old who has sage in his garden?” I do not know which Salvia species would have been responsible for this proverb. There are over a hundred species of Salvia species native to China, and the Mediterranean import Salvia officinalis is grown throughout the country.

Bundle of dried sage, recently, recently, in Alaska

The health and wellness meaning of “sage” is etymologically independent from its other definition as a wise thing or wise person. This second meaning ultimately comes from the Latin sapere, to know or taste. I personally enjoy conflating these meanings, tying wisdom and well-being to the plant. I like that the Salvia officinalis that grew on a pot on my deck this summer and that will season comfort food this winter is a descendent from the plants that healer contemporaries of Pliny the Elder would have searched for amidst sun-drenched rocks in the Mediterranean hills.

Salvia in macarons at my local bakery (Fire Island) this week: blackberry-sage and rosemary-merlot.

Simon & Garfunkel close the Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme album with the song “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night,” in which they juxtapose jarring newscasts from the Nixon and Johnson era with the Christmas carol. This holiday season has felt a bit like that song to me, like concerted effort is required to prevent awful, omnipresent news from drowning out the joy and solemnity of marking the darkest time of the year. But perhaps honoring traditions always involves this element of deliberately carving out the space in which to do so. Perhaps sprinkling rosemary and sage into a holiday stew or stuffing can be a radical act, a defiant embrace of old wisdom to fortify ourselves to stand with each other and create something beautiful in the cold. Regardless, insane amounts of butter will be involved, at least at my house. And when the January 2nd resolutions to “eat better” come around, chia will be there.

References

Ben Farhat, M., Chaouch -Hamada, R., & Landoulsi, A. (2015). Oil yield and fatty acid profile of seeds of three Salvia species. A comparative study. Herba Polonica, 61(2), 14–29. doi:10.1515/hepo-2015-0012

Cahill, J. P. (2003). Ethnobotany of Chia, Salvia hispanica L. (Lamiaceae). Economic Botany, 57(4), 604–618. doi:10.1663/0013-0001(2003)057[0604:EOCSHL]2.0.CO;2

Capitani, M. I., Ixtaina, V. Y., Nolasco, S. M., & Tomás, M. C. (2013). Microstructure, chemical composition and mucilage exudation of chia ( Salvia hispanica L.) nutlets from Argentina. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 93(15), 3856–3862. doi:10.1002/jsfa.6327

Drew, B. T., González-Gallegos, J. G., Xiang, C. L., Kriebel, R., Drummond, C. P., Walker, J. B., & Sytsma, K. J. (2017). Salvia united: The greatest good for the greatest number. Taxon, 66(1), 133–145. doi:10.12705/661.7

Jenks, A. A., & Kim, S. C. (2013a). Medicinal plant complexes of Salvia subgenus Calosphace: An ethnobotanical study of new world sages. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 146(1), 214–224. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2012.12.035

Jenks, A. A., & Kim, S. C. (2013b). Medicinal plant complexes of Salvia subgenus Calosphace: An ethnobotanical study of new world sages. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 146(1), 214–224. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2012.12.035

Kamatou, G. P., van Zyl, R. L., van Vuuren, S. F., Viljoen, A., Figueiredo, A. C., Barroso, J. G., … Tilney, P. M. (2006). Chemical composition, leaf trichome types and biological activities of the essential oils of four related Salvia Species indigenous to Southern Africa Analysis of plant volatile using 2D gas chromatography View project Chemometrics View project. Journal of Essential Oil Research. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236850867

Rundel, P. W., Arroyo, M. T. K., Cowling, R. M., Keeley, J. E., Lamont, B. B., & Vargas, P. (2016). Mediterranean Biomes: Evolution of Their Vegetation, Floras, and Climate. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 47, 383–407. doi:10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-121415-032330

Ryding, O. (1992). Pericarp structure and phylogeny within Lamiaceae subfamily Nepetoideae tribe Ocimeae. Nordic Journal of Botany, 12(3), 273–298. doi:10.1111/j.1756-1051.1992.tb01304.x

Schuurink, R., & Tissier, A. (2019). Glandular trichomes: micro-organs with model status? The New Phytologist, nph.16283. doi:10.1111/nph.16283

Vargas, P., Fernández-Mazuecos, M., & Heleno, R. (2018). Phylogenetic evidence for a Miocene origin of Mediterranean lineages: species diversity, reproductive traits and geographical isolation. Plant Biology, 20, 157–165. doi:10.1111/plb.12626

Walker, J. B., Sytsma, K. J., Treutlein, J., & Wink, M. (2004). Salvia (Lamiaceae) is not monophyletic: implications for the systematics, radiation, and ecological specializations of Salvia and tribe Mentheae. American Journal of Botany, 91(7), 1115–1125. doi:10.3732/ajb.91.7.1115

Will, M., & Claßen-Bockhoff, R. (2017). Time to split Salvia s.l. (Lamiaceae) – New insights from Old World Salvia phylogeny. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 109, 33–58. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2016.12.041

 

Angelica: Holiday fruitcake from a sometimes toxic family

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Angelica archangelica may be the most festive species in a crowded field of charismatic relatives. Just watch out for the toxic branches of the Apiaceae family tree. This essay is one of our two contributions to this year’s Advent Botany holiday essay collection.

For scientific names of plants associated with the winter holidays, I think it would be hard to beat Angelica archangelica. Commonly known just as angelica or garden angelica, A. archangelica is one of the few cultivated members among the 60-ish species of large biennial herbs in the genus. They are distributed primarily across the northern reaches of Europe, Asia, and western North America.

Angelica stalks candied and photographed by hunter-harvester-gardener Hank Shaw. Recipe on his blog

Candied angelica stalks (young stems and petioles from first-year plants) have long been prized in Western Europe as a unique confection or addition to baked goods. If your path this holiday crosses with a fruitcake studded with bright green chunks, those are unfortunately dyed pieces of candied angelica stalk. Or you may have a qualitatively different experience with angelica in the form of delicious liqueurs that include the root or fruit of the plant as an ingredient. The floral, spicy, and fresh flavor of angelica graces gins, vermouths, absinthes, aquavits, bitters, and Chartreuse, among others (Amy Stewart’s website accompaniment to her book The Drunken Botanist has some tips for growing and using angelica for the DIY mixologist). Continue reading →

Carrot top pesto through the looking glass

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Isomers are molecules that have the same chemical constituents in different physical arrangements. Some terpenoid isomers have very different aromas and are important food seasonings. A batch of carrot top pesto led to an exploration of intriguing terpenoid isomers in the mint, carrot, and lemon families.

“Oh, c’mon. Try it,” my husband admonished me with a smile. “If anyone would be excited about doing something with them, I should think it would be you.”

The “them” in question were carrot tops, the prolific pile of lacy greens still attached to the carrots we bought at the farmer’s market. I have known for years that carrot tops are edible and have occasionally investigated recipes for them, but that was the extent of my efforts to turn them into food. My excuse is that I harbored niggling doubts that carrot tops would taste good. Edible does not, after all, imply delicious. My husband had thrown down the gauntlet, though, by challenging my integrity as a vegetable enthusiast. I took a long look at the beautiful foliage on the counter.

“Fine,” I responded, sounding, I am sure, resigned. “I’ll make a pesto with them.”

Carrot tops, it turns out, make a superb pesto. I have the passion of a convert about it, and not just because my carrot tops will forevermore meet a fate suitable to their bountiful vitality. The pesto I made combined botanical ingredients from two plant families whose flavors highlight the fascinating chemistry of structural and stereo isomers. Continue reading →

Botany Lab of the Month, Presidential Inauguration Edition: Saffron

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If you like your spices gold-colored and expensive, find some fresh Crocus sativus flowers and grab ‘em by the…disproportionately large female reproductive organ. Small hands might work best, though it might turn your skin orange. Saffron is probably from the Middle East. If that bothers you, you may want to ban it from your spice shelves, however ill that bodes for the quality of your cabinet. After all, there is a stigma against that sort of thing.

The most expensive oversized reproductive organ in the world

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A pile of dried saffron stigmas (“threads”). Photo from Wikipedia

You may know that saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. A Spanish farmer sold his crop of high quality saffron this year for four euros per gram, which is a ninth of today’s price of gold (36 euros per gram). Saffron is expensive because its production requires a huge amount of labor and land. Saffron production is labor- and land-intensive because saffron is a botanically unique food item that defies mechanical harvest and accounts for a miniscule proportion of the plant that bears it. The saffron threads sold as spice are the dried stigmas of the flowers of the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus, family Iridaceae). Recall that the stigma is the part of the flower’s female reproductive organs that catches pollen. Pollen travels from the stigma through the style into the flower’s ovary (collectively, the stigma, style, and ovary comprise the pistil). Continue reading →

Winter mint

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This is our second of our two contributions to Advent Botany 2015. All the essays are great!

An early image of candy canes. From Wikipedia

An early image of candy canes. From Wikipedia

The candy cane, that red- and white-striped hard candy imbued with peppermint oil, is a signature confection of the winter holidays. Peppermint has a long history of cultivation and both medicinal and culinary use. Infusions of the plant or its extract have been used for so many hundreds of years throughout Europe, North Africa and Western Asia that the early history of peppermint candies, including cane-shaped ones, is murky. Fortunately, the biology behind peppermint’s famous aroma is better known than the story of how it came to be a Christmas staple. Continue reading →

Taking advantage of convergent terpene evolution in the kitchen

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The Cooks Illustrated recipe masters recently added nutmeg and orange zest to a pepper-crusted steak to replace two flavorful terpenes, pinene and limonene, lost from black pepper when simmered in oil. In doing so they take advantage of convergent evolution of terpenoids, the most diverse group of chemical products produced by plants. Nutmeg and orange zest, though, were hardly their only options.

The terpene swap

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) growing in Cambodia (photo by L. Osnas)

Black pepper growing (photo by L. Osnas)

To develop satisfying crunch, the Cooks Illustrated recipe for pepper-crusted beef tenderloin requires a prodigious quantity of coarsely ground black pepper (Piper nigrum; family Piperaceae). If applied to the meat raw, however, in the recipe authors’ view, this heap of pepper generates an unwelcome amount of spicy heat. To mellow it, the recipe authors recommend simmering the pepper in oil and straining it out of the oil before adding it to the dry rub. The hot oil draws out the alkaloid piperine, which makes black pepper taste hot, from the cracked black pepper fruits (peppercorns).

Nutmeg seed showing brown seed coat folded within the ruminate endosperm

Nutmeg seed

To their dismay, however, the recipe authors discovered that the hot oil also removes flavorful compounds from the cracked pepper, in particular the terpenes pinene and limonene. To rectify this flavor problem, the recipe authors added pinene-rich nutmeg (Myristica fragrans; Myristicaceae) and limonene-rich orange (Citrus x sinensis; Rutaceae) zest to the dry rub, along with the simmered black pepper. In doing so they take advantage of widespread and diverse array of terpenoids in the plant kingdom. Continue reading →

Nasturtiums and the birds and the bees

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Hummingbirds and ancient bees are responsible for the color and shape of nasturtium blossoms and have a unique view of them, explains Jeanne over salad. 

Nasturtium flowers cut into tomato salad with parsley

Nasturtium flowers cut into tomato salad with parsley

Fall frost hasn’t yet claimed our nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus; Tropaeolaceae family). The large, colorful blooms amidst the round leaves are still spilling over planting boxes.  All parts of the plant are edible and boast spicy mustard oil glucosinolates, betraying the plant’s membership in the order Brassicales, along with the cruciferous vegetables and mustard in the Brassicaceae family, capers (Capparaceae), and papaya (Caricaceae; try the seeds, as suggested here). I’ve heard that the immature flower buds and immature seed pods can be pickled like capers, but I haven’t tried it yet. Mostly I use the flowers, throwing a few in a salad or chopping them coarsely with other herbs and stirring them into strained yogurt or butter to put on top of roasted vegetables or lentils. In addition to the mustardy kick, the sweet flower nectar adds to these dishes. Continue reading →

Evolution of Lemon Flavor

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A batch of lemon balm-lemon verbena syrup reminds Jeanne of the multiple evolutionary origins of lemon flavor.

DSC00796The citrus lemon itself is only one of many plant species that lends its namesake flavor or fragrance to our food and drinks.  Lemon flavor primarily comes from a few terpenoid essential oils:  citral (also called geranial, neral, or lemonal), linalool, limonene, geraniol, and citronellal.  The production of one or more of these essential oils has independently evolved multiple times in species on widely separated branches of the plant phylogeny (see figure).

Phylogeny of plant orders with edibles (click the tree to enlarge). Orders with species with lemony essential oils are highlighted in red. For a refresher on reading phylogenies, please see our food plant tree of life page.

Phylogeny of plant taxonomic orders with edibles (click the tree to enlarge). Orders with species with lemony essential oils are highlighted in red. For a refresher on reading this phylogeny, please see our food plant tree of life page.

Continue reading →

Tarragon’s family tree

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Tarragon is one of many Artemisia species with a storied past.  Jeanne introduces you to her favorite genus. 

If you love eating French food, and especially if you love cooking it, when you see a tarragon bush, inevitably you think of the French quartet fines herbes:  fresh parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil.  You may reminisce about a perfect (or broken) Béarnaise sauce.  These days when I pass my tarragon plant I vow to actually use it, as we’ve neglected it this year.  I also think of sagebrush.  And absinthe, martinis, and Shakespeare. And weeds, malaria, and hippies.  I attribute this motley mental association to tarragon’s membership in my favorite genus, Artemisia, a large group in the composite (sunflower) family, Asteraceae, with a rich history. Continue reading →