Cortex Dictamni seed

LATIN NAME: Dictamnus dasycarpus

COMMON NAME: Dittany

The dittany is a handsome, upright, clump-forming, perennial herb of the dry, sunny places, and its fine, oval or lance-shaped, aromatic leaves and its tall, upright heads of the many showy, pink, white or purple, five-petalled flowers with the fine, long stamens have made it a treasured and fine plant of the border. It grows as an upright, clump-forming, perennial herb, reaching up to one metre or so, with the upright, branching stems bearing the alternate, oval or lance-shaped, finely toothed, aromatic leaves and, through the early summer, the tall, upright heads of the many showy, pink, white or purple, five-petalled flowers with the fine, long stamens, followed by the small, dry, star-shaped, few-seeded capsules. It is a species of the flowering plant in the rue family, and it is native to the dry, sunny places of the eastern Asia, while it is prized for its fine flowers and its long history of traditional use, and it is known as the dittany.

In the rue family it is the showy, aromatic herb of the dry border, a plant with the old reputation written into its bark and its roots.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The dittany bark and roots have their own long chapter in the traditional plant chemistry of the eastern Asia, and the constituents have been worked through by the natural-product chemists with continuing interest. The botanists have mapped its place in the rue family and the dry grassland of the region, and the horticulturists have grown the tall, showy, pink, many-flowered form for the sunny border. The plant is best appreciated as a subject of study rather than a casual remedy, and the growers of the dry-border perennials keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the sunny border, the dittany is the tall, showy tower of the early summer. Its many pink, five-petalled flowers feed the bees, the aromatic leaves scent the air, and the clump-forming growth holds its place in the border for years. The bark has served the traditional ways of the region, and the plant grows well in the dry, sunny, well-drained ground. Pink, aromatic and long-lived.

Mix the seeds into a bag of damp sand and keep it in the fridge through a spell of cold weather, then sow them shallowly in pots of gritty, free-draining soil, stand the pots in a sunny spot and water them sparingly, and the first leaves will show in time.