Home » Wild Edibles »
Family: Laminaceae
Species: Calamintha Grandiflora
Common Name: Mint Savory, Large-Flowered Calamint, Satureja Grandiflora
Calamints are close cousins to garden mint, without the spreading invasive habit, and a more delicate fragrance. This plant is native to Europe and the Middle East.
This selection forms an upright, bushy mound of soft green, oval-shaped leaves. Rose-pink flowers are studs on short spikes among the leaves in midsummer. This will slowly spread to form a small patch, attractive to butterflies and bees for their pleasantly fragrance.
CULTIVATION
Plants are hardy to about -15°c, easy to grow perennial that prefer a well-drained dry to moist neutral to alkaline soil and a warm sunny position. Calamintha plants can be used for ground cover and it is sometimes cultivated as a medicinal herb for household use; generally grows in damp woods and scrub and limestone.
CULINARY USE AND MEDICINAL PROPERTIES
From the leaves, you can prepare a very refreshing, sweet and aromatic tea. The best time to harvest the leaves is exactly when the plant comes into flower and used as a flavoring. It has a pleasant delicate mint-like fragrance, and being more delicate can have much uses in the kitchen in the making of sauces and whatever your creativity suggests.
The whole plant is aromatic, diaphoretic, expectorant, febrifuge and digestive. The leaves are best harvested in summer as the plant comes into flower, and are dried for later use. An infusion is beneficial in cases of flatulent colic and weaknesses of the stomach, it is also used to treat depression, insomnia and painful menstruation.
