Otherwise known as Lemon Verbena, which in turn is known to me as *THE* best herb to turn into a tea infusion ever.
The following I've lifted right out of the Lemon Verbena entry in The Southern Living Garden Book that my sister gave me not too long ago.
"this plant is prized for its leaves, which scent the area around them with a citruslike fragrance. . . . When you read of the scent of verbena in literature about the antebellum South, lemon verbena is the plant being described. . . . The long, shiny leaves add lemony flavor to teas and iced drinks."
According to my book, the upper south extends into the lower half of St. Louis. Good to know.
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4 comments:
I just bought lemon verbena oil (for fragrance) I LOVE it, it smells so good! I should grow it too!
I hope I'll be able to find seeds or a starter plant. Too bad our winters will kill it. I'll have to keep it in a container.
This only relates to the last statement in the post, but...
It's always interesting to me how Southern influence has changed since the Civil War. Missouri, a slave state, was claimed by the CSA as a state and had a government in exile in Richmond. However, I'm with you--it doesn't seem very Southern nowadays. It also surprises some people to think of DC as a Southern city and Maryland as a Southern state, but they were in the beginning. The Mason-Dixon Line that once represented a line of cultural distinction between the North and South is actually the Pennsylvania-Maryland border, even though Northern culture extends much farther south now (not to mention a flanking, amphibious maneuver to take south Florida...)
I didn't know until recently (two years at most) that Missouri has a Confederate memorial in a little place called Lexington (past Columbia on the way to Kansas City). I really want to take the kids to go see it.
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