In the earliest beginnings of man, plants were harvested from the wild for many uses, then gardened for their prized value. Historically, plants were classified in three basic categories: trees, shrubs, and herbs. If it was not a tree or a shrub, it was an herb. In other words, herbs were plants that lacked a “permanent” woody stem or structure. However, in the warmer USDA climate zones 8 and above, some herbs do not die back to the ground in winter. In addition, herbs can be annual, biennial, or perennial, breaking down the notion that herbs are only perennial and herbaceous. As plant knowledge expanded, accurate information was vital to the types of plants harvested for a specific purpose such as healing, food preparation, and perfume. Use of the word herb evolved to mean plants that had a specific use or purpose because of an active ingredient. Trees and shrubs can fit this definition if they have a useful purpose, such as the woody shrub witch hazel, widely known for its astringent qualities.
Botanists and horticulturalists can find middle ground by defining an herb as any type of plant cultivated for its usefulness in flavoring, perfume, or for cosmetic and medicinal uses.
How’s your Latin? Botanical Latin names can be vexing and intimidating. Sometimes Latin pronunciation rolls off the tongue, but more often than not, the words stumble out uncomfortably. Rather than be uncomfortable with botanical Latin, learn to embrace why we need to know it. The use and knowledge of botanical Latin names allows opportunity for gardeners to learn more about an herb, its history and its cultivation. The history of plants can be very revealing about what we need to know to grow them.
Why it matters that we get to know a botanical name
In herb lore and gardening, common names are used more frequently than the proper botanical Latin names. Basil, for instance, is usually listed by its common name rather than the botanical name Ocimum basilicum. It has become typical in herb garden writing and on seed packets to use the common name. Most people would not recognize the plant Petroselinum crispum unless we also hear its common name, parsley.
Common names of herbs can be a fascinating study all on their own. Common names were given typically because of a plant’s appearance or its original use. Consider the name of the herb known as bible leaf or costmary, Tanacetum balsamita, named for the lore that a fresh leaf was tucked into bibles for a snack to alleviate hunger during long sermons.
A pitfall of common names is that they can vary by geographic location, which makes plant identification confusing. Knowing the botanical name is vital when we’re using herbs for consumption, whether internal or external. Much misunderstanding and even trouble can come from relying solely on common names.
An example of name confusion is pot marigold, which is botanically Calendula officinalis. The name “marigold” conjures up the image of the familiar golden orange flower Tagetes patula, used as a summer annual in most gardens. But these are two very different plants, pot marigold (Calendula) is revered for its gentle, healing qualities in skin preparations, while the common marigold, Tagetes patula, is better known for repelling bugs in the garden. Getting the two confused without proper botanical identification could result in a serious skin rash if the wrong variety were used in a cosmetic preparation.
Officinalis or Officinale?
When we look at the terminology of botanical language we can discover clues to the ways herbs were used in the daily lives of our ancestors. The specific label officinalis or officinale, meaning “of the druggist’s storeroom,” signifies that in past recorded history the plant was used commercially as medicine. In the eighteen century, as Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus was bestowing names on plants, many herbs were already common and familiar to herbalists. Linnaeus had to decide between a plant’s official status to identify it or another descriptive word for the species – and so officinalis was tagged onto an herb that was being regularly used for medicine at the time. It gives us a much deeper sense of history when we encounter ordinary garden herbs with the species name “officinalis.”
HERBS FOR SKIN CARE: NATURAL VS. “NATURAL”
Cosmetic use of plant material is rooted deep in our collective past, with records and recipes handed down through the ages. The awareness of plant material used as healing and aromatic skin preparations has been with us since biblical times. And then came Theron T. Pond, a New Yorker who learned about a wonderful herb that the local Native Americans were using as a topical application for the skin. In 1846, Pond mixed a simple blend of witch hazel, oil, wax and water that was developed as “Pond’s Extract.” This was the early beginnings of what is now a multi-billion-dollar cosmetic industry.
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