A hardy perennial, up to 1 m (3 ft.) tall, it has a creeping rhizome and oval, silvery-green, soft-textured leaves, with a minty-balsamic fragrance. Small, daisy-like flowers are borne in mid- to late summer. Formerly classified in the Chrysanthemum genus.<\/p>\n
History and traditions<\/p>\n
Alecost came to Europe from the Middle East during the 16th century and soon became popular for its pleasant balsam fragrance. As Culpeper wrote a century later, \u201cThis is so frequently known to be an inhabitant in almost every garden that supposes it is needless to write a description thereof.\u201d As its common name suggests, it was used to flavor ale, the second syllable \u201ccost\u201d is from a Greek word, kostos, meaning fragrant or spicy. In the 17th century it was taken to America by settlers, where it became known as Bible-leaf from the custom of using it as a Bible bookmark and sniffing its revivifying scent during long sermons. As a medicinal herb it was frequently recommended for disorders of the stomach and head and Culpeper gives instructions for making it into a salve with olive oil, thickened with wax, rosin and turpentine. But it is now little used as a medicinal herb.<\/p>\n
Native to western Asia naturalized in Europe and North America.<\/p>\n
Prefers a moisture-retentive but well-drained soil and a sunny position. Most easily propagated by division or cuttings in spring, but can also be grown from seed.<\/p>\n
An infusion of the leaves helps reduce the pain of insect bites and stings, and a fresh leaf may be applied directly to the spot as \u201cfirst aid\u201d.<\/p>\n
Fresh leaves may be added to fruit cups and drinks; fresh or dried leaves make an aromatic tea.<\/p>\n
The dried leaves are added to pot-pourri and make fragrant bookmarks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A hardy perennial, up to 1 m (3 ft.) tall, it has a creeping rhizome and oval, silvery-green, soft-textured leaves, with a minty-balsamic fragrance. Small, daisy-like flowers are borne in mid- to late summer. Formerly classified in the Chrysanthemum genus. History and traditions Alecost came to Europe from the Middle East during the 16th century […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,109,102,115,97,92,105,110,98,127,160,103,114,121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-z","category-acidic-soil","category-clay-soil","category-fall","category-full","category-herb","category-loamy-soil","category-neutral-soil","category-partial","category-perennial","category-perennial-plant-type","category-sandy-soil","category-summer","category-yellow"],"meta_box":{"botanical-name":"Tanacetum balsamita","common-names":"Alecost, Balsam Weed, Bible Leaf, Bible Plant, Chrysanthemum, Costmary, Mint Geranium, Sweet Mary","family":"Asteraceae","flower_bloom_time":[{"term_id":115,"name":"Fall","slug":"fall","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":115,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":46,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":114,"name":"Summer","slug":"summer","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":114,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":163,"filter":"raw"}],"flower_color":[{"term_id":121,"name":"Yellow","slug":"yellow","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":121,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":76,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_life_cycle":[{"term_id":127,"name":"Perennial","slug":"perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":127,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":84,"count":133,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_types":[{"term_id":92,"name":"Herb","slug":"herb","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":92,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":88,"count":79,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":127,"name":"Perennial","slug":"perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":127,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":84,"count":133,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_ph":[{"term_id":109,"name":"Acidic Soil","slug":"acidic-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":109,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":148,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":110,"name":"Neutral Soil","slug":"neutral-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":110,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":158,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_type":[{"term_id":102,"name":"Clay Soil","slug":"clay-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":102,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":108,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":105,"name":"Loamy Soil","slug":"loamy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":105,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":179,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":103,"name":"Sandy Soil","slug":"sandy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":103,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":147,"filter":"raw"}],"sun_exposure":[{"term_id":97,"name":"Full","slug":"full","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":97,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":197,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":98,"name":"Partial","slug":"partial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":98,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":126,"filter":"raw"}],"usda_hardiness_zones":"Zone: 5 - 7","region_or_country_of_origin":"Southern Europe and Western Asia","plant_mature_size":"
Height<\/strong>: 0 ft. 8 in. - 6 ft. 0 in.<\/span><\/p>\n Width<\/strong>: 1 ft. 4 in. - 3 ft. 6 in.<\/span><\/p>\n"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions\/876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}