Found this by smell rather than eye, it was lurking amongst some cut back jasmine. My first thought was "why would ginger smell like sage?" (sometimes step on shallow wild gingers, you can smell some of em if you hang around once you've done the damage). After hunting around eyes closed nose open (must've looked great to anyone watching) I found it.
Lamiaceae I think, Labiateae maybe... maybe one of the more out there Salvias (the nodal areas don't have that "bubbled" look that salvias tend to, IME, IMO, but there are one or two kinds of salvia out there eh ). No idea about flowers, but I happen past this way fairly often for a few years now and haven't noticed any, so either they're insignificant, or flowering when the jasmine has overgrown it, OR blends in ok with jasmine flowers). The leaves are very aromatic, have a thymey-ginger-sage-galangal--turmeric kind of smell (doesn't come close, really, other than the ginger)...sweet and tangy, but earthy rather than sugary... it numbs the tongue and dries quickly as whole leaves, a little leathery. Hairy upper and lower surfaces, but not overly so... not nettle-like. Non irritant unless you ate a heap I guess.
Pervasive smell, crushing just one dry leaf means you are smelling it on your hands and whatever you've touched for the rest of the day (think rosemary). A few wee inhalations (yeah, but some things just smell too tasty...) went down nicely, very flavoursome, spicy and hot but not biting or overly bitter. Might have (only a short drive this time) produced a focused, cleared-mind kind of relaxtion for a lil while... nic mint tea with some chamomile after, if more pronounced). Got some cuttings (well, snappings) of old andm iddle aged wood, see how we go. Doesn't look like any plants that come up as "ginger mint" "ginger sage", and if it was a long standing thing rather than some obscure in or out-breed I think I'd have seen it in herb books before. The specimen is about a metre by a metre in size, cut back from maybe 1.5 time thats? very woody, so maybe as a younger plant it was more recognizable.
Interesting, has to be useful for something if only stopping your grazes going septic or keeping bugs out of your sock drawer, creepies out of your cabbages.... That taste was something though... not something I'd want to have often but it's tasty when you do? Something like that.
Any ideas very much appreciated, apologies for bodgy photos...free tip, don't keep digi next to cold and condensation dripping water bottle in bag.
Found this by smell rather than eye, it was lurking amongst some cut back jasmine. My first thought was "why would ginger smell like sage?" (sometimes step on shallow wild gingers, you can smell some of em if you hang around once you've done the damage). After hunting around eyes closed nose open (must've looked great to anyone watching) I found it.
Lamiaceae I think, Labiateae maybe... maybe one of the more out there Salvias (the nodal areas don't have that "bubbled" look that salvias tend to, IME, IMO, but there are one or two kinds of salvia out there eh
). No idea about flowers, but I happen past this way fairly often for a few years now and haven't noticed any, so either they're insignificant, or flowering when the jasmine has overgrown it, OR blends in ok with jasmine flowers). The leaves are very aromatic, have a thymey-ginger-sage-galangal--turmeric kind of smell (doesn't come close, really, other than the ginger)...sweet and tangy, but earthy rather than sugary... it numbs the tongue and dries quickly as whole leaves, a little leathery. Hairy upper and lower surfaces, but not overly so... not nettle-like. Non irritant unless you ate a heap I guess.
Pervasive smell, crushing just one dry leaf means you are smelling it on your hands and whatever you've touched for the rest of the day (think rosemary). A few wee inhalations (yeah, but some things just smell too tasty...) went down nicely, very flavoursome, spicy and hot but not biting or overly bitter. Might have (only a short drive this time) produced a focused, cleared-mind kind of relaxtion for a lil while... nic mint tea with some chamomile after, if more pronounced). Got some cuttings (well, snappings) of old andm iddle aged wood, see how we go. Doesn't look like any plants that come up as "ginger mint" "ginger sage", and if it was a long standing thing rather than some obscure in or out-breed I think I'd have seen it in herb books before. The specimen is about a metre by a metre in size, cut back from maybe 1.5 time thats? very woody, so maybe as a younger plant it was more recognizable.
Interesting, has to be useful for something if only stopping your grazes going septic or keeping bugs out of your sock drawer, creepies out of your cabbages.... That taste was something though... not something I'd want to have often but it's tasty when you do? Something like that.
Any ideas very much appreciated, apologies for bodgy photos...free tip, don't keep digi next to cold and condensation dripping water bottle in bag.
VM
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