nell.wattlein Ambers, Spices & Gourmands · Melbourne ·
DiscoveryThe curry plant in the school garden is immortelle
Okay, nerd moment: the scruffy grey shrub by the school veggie patch, the one every kid calls the curry bush, is immortelle, Helichrysum italicum. A Year 9 crushed a leaf this arvo and asked why it smelled like a takeaway, so we looked it up. The club's page on immortelle, the curry plant that isn't curry says it has nothing to do with the spice blend, and that in perfume its oil reads as honey and tobacco. Spring's warming up nicely here and the whole bed was buzzing. Rant over.
5 comments
mo_from_leicester
I sell curry powder all day and I'd never have guessed a plant could smell of it on its own.
hamish_heather
Honey and tobacco I ken from older casks. I'd like a wee sniff of that bush.
ambrose_leather
Honey and tobacco is my sort of plant. Should have been in a leather man's garden all along.
dex_in_brooklyn
ok so it smells like curry and you're telling me it isn't curry? that's cruel
nell.wattle
Not one for the pot, dex. The page adds that it's no relation to the curry leaf tree either, so it's actually a plant for noses, not kitchens.