Botanical Name: Foeniculum vulgare | Family: Umbelliferae
Common name(s): Fennel
GROWING
- Perennial; herbaceous | Zones 6-9 | 4-5 feet tall | Yellow umbels bloom from July until frost and produce seed after blooming
- Full sun | Any soils, prefers well-drained
HARVESTING
Harvest the seeds in autumn.
PREPARATION / DOSAGE
Infusion: Pour 1 cup of water over 1 – 2 tsp seeds and let infuse for 10 minutes. Drink 3x/day.
Tincture: 2-4 ml at 3x/day.
MEDICAL
Constituents: Essential oil including fenchone and anethole, fatty oil
Actions: Antispasmodic, aromatic, carminative, galactogogue, expectorant, rubefacient, stimulant
Uses: colic, flatulence, digestive stimulant, appetite stimulant, stomach pain, bloating
Cautions: do not exceed recommended dose, Limit use if pregnant, do not use for children or if breast feeding, do not ingest essential oil.
SOURCES
- Homegrown Herbs, Tammi Hartung
- Holistic Herbal, David Hoffman
- Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine, Andrew Chevallier
- photo credit: tomylees 134:365, 2016, Fennel IMG_7100 via photopin (license)
I have fennel in my garden. It doesn’t produce big bulbs, for whatever reason, but it gives me seeds, which I use for my Tummy Tamer tea. Even though I’m in zone 5, plants have come back the next year, and some come up from seeds that fall to the ground.
