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)

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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.