Tag: Melissa officinalis

  • Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

    Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)
    Photographed July 14.

    Lemon Balm, or just Balm, was brought over to this country for its delightful scent and flavor and for its supposed medicinal properties. It was believed to cure melancholy, among other things, and certainly gathering a handful and making a tisane from it is a good way to raise one’s spirits. Often planted in herb gardens, it easily escapes, and the tiny seeds wash downhill and form colonies anywhere they find a foothold. It can become quite weedy, but its delightful scent and many uses make it hard to resent. These plants were growing along a fence and by a sidewalk in Beechview.

    Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

    The name Melissa, from the Greek word for a bee, reminds us that this plant makes bees happy, too, and who doesn’t want happy bees?

    Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

    For a description of the species, see the Melissa officinalis reference page.

    Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

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  • Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

    Melissa officinalis in profile

    Lemon Balm can be very weedy, but it is so useful that it is hard to resent as a weed. The lemony leaves make a good tisane, and the flowers are great favorites with bees. These plants were growing along a fence in Beechview.

    Melissa officinalis
    Flower of Lemon Balm
    Flower facing left

    For a description of the species, see the Melissa officinalis reference page.

    Melissa officinalis
    Photographed June 25 and july 4 with a Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6.