Mexican oregano

Mexican oregano
	Mexican oregano ( Lippia origanoides )
Systematics
	Asterids
	Euasterids I
Order :	Mint family (Lamiales)
Family :	Verbena plants (Verbenaceae)
Genre :	Lippia
Type :	Mexican oregano
Scientific name
	Lippia origanoides
	Kunth

Lippia graveolens ( Lippia origanoides ) is a plant from the genus Lippia within the family of iron herb plants (Verbenaceae). The leaves are edible, smell similar to oregano, and are used in Mexican cuisine .

description

Vegetative characteristics

The Mexican oregano is a slender shrub that reaches heights of 1 to 2, rarely up to 4 meters. The bark of the aromatic branches is short, finely haired ( trichome ).

The opposite arranged leaves are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The petiole is 5 to 10 millimeters long. The simple leaf blade is elongated to elliptical or ovate to ovoid-elongated with a length of 1 to 4 centimeters and a width of 0.5 to 3 centimeters. The tip of the spade is blunt or rounded, only rarely pointed and the base of the spade is rounded or almost heart-shaped. The leaf margin is finely notched. The upper side of the leaf is covered with soft, short, fine hairs, the underside of the leaf is covered with glandular and fine felted hairs.

Generative characteristics

The annual inflorescences are in groups of two to six in the leaf axils on 4 to 12 millimeter long inflorescence shafts. The flower stalks are almost spherical to elongated with a length of 4 to 12 millimeters. The green, glandular and densely hairy bracts stand in four rows and are egg-shaped to lanceolate with a length of 3 to 3.5 millimeters with a pointed upper end.

The hermaphroditic flowers have a double flower envelope . The glandular and finely hairy sepals are fused into a 1 to 2 millimeter long, two-lipped calyx that ends in four calyx teeth. The white to yellowish, 4 to 7 millimeter long petals of a 3 to 6 millimeter long corolla tube are fused, curly haired.

Occurrence

Lippia origanoides is distributed from southern Texas via Mexico to Nicaragua . It grows there at altitudes of up to 350 meters on stony slopes or in damp thickets.

Taxonomy

The first description of Lippia origanoides was made in 1818 by Karl Sigismund Kunth in Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt , Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland and Carl Sigismund Kunth: Nova Genera et Species Plantarum , 4th Edition, 2, page 267. synonyms for Lippia origanoides Kunth are: Lippia graveolens Kunth , Lippia berteroi Spreng. , Lippia elegans Cham. , Lippia microphylla Cham. , Lippia salviifolia Cham. , Lippia sidoides Cham. , Lippia microphylla Benth. nom. illeg., Lippia berlandieri M. Martens & Galeotti , Lippia affinis Schauer , Lippia berlandieri Schauer nom. illeg., Lippia glandulosa Schauer , Lippia rigida Schauer , Lippia rubiginosa Schauer , Lippia schomburgkiana Schauer , Lippia velutina Schauer , Lippia berlandieri Torr. nom. illeg., Lippia palmeri S. Watson , Lippia obscura Briq. , Lippia polycephala Briq. , Lippia candicans Hayek , Lippia pendula Rusby , Lippia mattogrossensis Moldenke , Lippia origanoides var. Sampaionis Herter .

Dried as a herb

use

There are many types of plants known as Mexican oregano. In addition to Lippia origanoides , a white-flowering plant of the Verbenaceae family, there are also pink-flowering plants and also Plectranthus amboinicus or Coleus aromaticus , which are called Cuban oregano.

The leaves are mainly used as a spice in Mexico and Central America, where this species, like many other aromatic plants, is also called Spanish: hierba dulce .

ingredients

Contain the essential oils of Mexican oregano

0-81% thymol
0-48% carvacrol
3-30% p-cymene
0-15% eucalyptol

Thymol and carvacrol are responsible for the oregano-like aroma.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Paul C. Standley, Louis O. Williams, Dorothy N. Gibson: Flora of Guatemala , Part IX, Nos. 1-2, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, USA, 1970, p. 211 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Lippia graveolens at Tropicos.org. In: Flora Mesoamericana . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
↑ Lippia origanoides at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed January 1, 2018.
↑ Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Lippia origanoides. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved January 1, 2018.
↑ James A. Duke: Duke's Handbook of Medicinal Plants of Latin America . CRC Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4200-4316-7 , pp. 414-415 ( Lippia graveolens on pp. 414-415 in the Google book search).
↑ Arthur O. Tucker, Thomas DeBaggio: The Encyclopedia of Herbs: A Comprehensive Reference to Herbs of Flavor and Fragrance . 2nd Edition. Timber Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-88192-994-2 , pp. 298–299 ( Lippia graveolens on pp. 298–299 in the Google book search).

literature

N. O'Leary, S. Denham, F. Salimena, ME Múlgura: Species delimination in Lippia section Goniostachyum (Verbenaceae) using the phylogenetic species concept. In: Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society , Volume 170, 2012, pp. 197-219.

Web links

Commons : Mexican oregano ( Lippia origanoides ) - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

[FoG-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Paul C. Standley, Louis O. Williams, Dorothy N. Gibson: Flora of Guatemala , Part IX, Nos. 1-2, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, USA, 1970, p. 211 .

[FloraMesoamericana-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Lippia graveolens at Tropicos.org. In: Flora Mesoamericana . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis

[Tropicos-3] Lippia origanoides at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed January 1, 2018.

[WCSP-4] Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Lippia origanoides. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved January 1, 2018.

[Duke2008-5] James A. Duke: Duke's Handbook of Medicinal Plants of Latin America . CRC Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4200-4316-7 , pp. 414-415 ( Lippia graveolens on pp. 414-415 in the Google book search).

[Tucker2009-6] Arthur O. Tucker, Thomas DeBaggio: The Encyclopedia of Herbs: A Comprehensive Reference to Herbs of Flavor and Fragrance . 2nd Edition. Timber Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-88192-994-2 , pp. 298–299 ( Lippia graveolens on pp. 298–299 in the Google book search).