What is rosemary?
A: Salvia rosmarinus, commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant,
evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or
blue
flowers.
Where is it native to?
A: The Mediterranean region.
It is a member of what family?
A: The sage family Lamiaceae, which includes many other medicinal and
culinary herbs.
Rosemary is an aromatic evergreen shrub with leaves
similar to what?
A: Hemlock needles.
Special cultivars like 'Arp' can withstand
winter
temperatures down to what?
A: About −20 °C.
It can withstand what?
A: Droughts, surviving a severe lack of water for lengthy periods.
In some parts of the world, it is considered a what?
A: A potentially invasive species.
The seeds are often difficult to start, with a low
germination rate and relatively slow what?
A: Growth, but the plant can live as long as 30 years.
Forms range from upright to trailing; the upright forms
can reach how tall?
A: 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) tall.
The leaves are evergreen, 2–4 cm (3⁄4–1+1⁄2 in) long
and 2–5 mm broad, green above, and white below, with dense, short, what?
A: Woolly hair.
The plant flowers in spring and summer in temperate
climates, but the plants can be in constant bloom where?
A: In warm climates.
What color are the flowers?
A: White, pink, purple or deep blue.
Rosemary also tends to flower outside it’s what?
A: It’s normal flowering season; it has been known to flower as late as
early December, and as early as mid-February in the northern hemisphere.
Where is the first mention of rosemary found?
A: On cuneiform stone tablets as early as 5000 BCE.
Egyptians used it in their what?
A: Burial rituals.
Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) wrote about it in what?
A: The Natural History, as did Pedanius Dioscorides (c. 40 CE to c. 90 CE),
a Greek botanist.
He talked about rosemary in his most famous writing, De
Materia Medica, one of what?
A: One of the most influential herbal books in history.
The herb then made its way east to where?
A: China and was naturalized there as early as 220 CE, during the late Han
Dynasty.
Hungary water, which dates to the 14th century, was one
of the first what?
A: Alcohol-based perfumes in Europe and was primarily made from distilled
rosemary.
When did rosemary finally arrive in the Americas?
A: With early European settlers in the beginning of the 17th century.
The leaves are used to flavor various
foods, such as
what?
A: Stuffing and roast meats.
It is considered easy to grow and is resistant to what?
A: Pests.
Rosemary can grow quite large and retain attractiveness
for many years, can be pruned into formal shapes and low hedges, and has
been used for what?
A: Topiary.
It is easily grown in what?
A: Pots.
Herbal tea can be made from what?
A: The leaves.
When roasted with meats or vegetables, the leaves
impart what?
A: A mustard-like aroma with an additional fragrance of charred wood that
goes well with barbecued
foods.
Rosemary is also an effective what?
A: Antimicrobial herb.