Few herbs are as graceful as fennel. Its tall stems rise in clouds of fine, feathery leaves, green or a lovely smoky bronze, topped in summer with flat, golden flower clusters. Brush against it and you catch a sweet, licorice-like scent. Fennel has a long history in the Mediterranean world, and in a Georgia garden it brings an unexpected gift: a summer home for butterflies.
Fennel in Greek history and myth
The ancient Greek word for fennel was marathon. The plain of Marathon, site of the famous battle in 490 BC, is generally thought to have been named for the fennel that grew there. That makes the modern marathon race, named for the legendary run from that battlefield, a distant cousin of the herb.
Fennel’s relatives appear in myth, too. In the story of Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods to give to humanity, the fire was carried hidden inside the hollow stalk of a giant fennel plant, a close relative of garden fennel whose dry stems smolder slowly. Giant fennel stalks were also used to make the thyrsus, the staff carried by followers of the god Dionysus.
Fennel through the centuries
Fennel traveled widely. Romans used it in cooking, and in medieval Europe it was hung over doorways on Midsummer’s Eve as part of old seasonal customs. In colonial New England, fennel and dill seeds were reportedly carried to long church services and nibbled during sermons, earning the nickname meeting seeds.
In India, fennel seeds, often roasted or candy-coated, are commonly offered after meals as a mouth freshener, and you will often see a small bowl of them near the door of Indian restaurants. In Italian cooking, fennel bulb is sliced raw into salads or roasted until sweet, and fennel seed flavors many sausages.
Growing fennel in Georgia
Herb fennel, grown for its leaves and seeds, handles summer heat well and is easy to grow from seed in full sun and well-drained soil. Bulb fennel, the kind grown for its swollen base, prefers cooler weather and is usually best planted for spring or fall harvests here. A few tips:
- Give it space. Fennel can grow several feet tall and does best with room around it. Many gardeners grow it apart from other vegetables.
- Cut the flower heads before they drop seed if you do not want volunteer seedlings next year, or let a few mature to harvest the seeds.
- Be certain of what you have. Fennel belongs to the carrot family, which includes some dangerous lookalikes such as poison hemlock, so never forage wild plants that resemble it.
Sharing with swallowtails
If you grow fennel, there is a good chance you will meet the caterpillars of the black swallowtail butterfly, which feed on plants in the carrot family, including fennel, dill and parsley. The striking green, black and yellow caterpillars can strip a plant quickly, but they will become the beautiful black-and-blue butterflies that drift through Southern gardens in summer.
Many gardeners simply plant extra fennel and think of it as a butterfly nursery. Watching the caterpillars grow, and perhaps spotting a chrysalis hanging from a stem, is one of the quiet joys of a July garden. It is a lovely reminder that a garden can feed more than just the people who tend it.