GERMANDER: Teucrium chamaedrys Family: Labiatae
Zones: 5 – 9 Full sun to part shade. Well-drained garden soil (or container); pH 6.0-6.7 Propagate by cuttings, layering, or division. Perennial, height to 2 ft. Flowers July to September, purple to purple-red, on stalks. Usually free from pests and diseases.
Germander is grown for its boxy ornamental shape, and is well suited to the formal herb garden. The foliage is lightly aromatic and has been traditionally used as a cure for gout, rheumatism, and other ailments. Reportedly George Washington’s favorite hedge plant. Common name Poor man’s box.
Following is an except from Culpepper’s Complete Herbal, originally published in 1649
“Description.- Common Germander shooteth forth sundry stalks with small
and somewhat round leaves, dented about the edges; the flowers stand at the
tops of a deep purple colour; the root is composed of divers springs, which
shoot forth a great way round about, quickly overspreading a garden.
Place.-It groweth
usually with us in gardens.
Time.-And flowereth in
June and July.
Government and Virtues.- It is an herb of Mercury, and strengthens the brain
exceedingly. Taken with honey, (saith
Dioscorides) it is a remedy for coughs, hardness of the spleen, and difficulty
of making urine, and helpeth those that are fallen into a
dropsy, especially at the beginning of the disease, a decoction being
made thereof when it is green, and drunk:
it also promotes women’s courses, and expelleth the dead child. It is most effectual against the poison of
all serpents, being drunk in wine, and the bruised herb outwardly applied. Used with honey it cleanseth old and foul
ulcers: and made into an oil and the eyes anointed therewith, taketh away
dimness and moistness: it is also good for pains in the sides and cramps. The decoction taken for four days, driveth away and cureth tertian
and quartan agues. It is also good against all
diseases of the brain, as continual head-ache, falling sickness, melancholy,
drowsiness, and dullness of spirits, convulsions and palsies. A drachm of the seed taken in powder promotes
uring, and is good against the yellow jaundice: the juice of the leaves dropped
into the ears killeth worms in them. The
tops thereof, when they are in flower, steeped twenty-four hours in a draught
of white wine, and drunk, killeth worms.”