By any other name....

Fennel is one of the most useful plants on my whole group of medicinal herbs list. Fennel Seeds are unbelievably helpful when combating a cold, flu or allergies. These same seeds relieve heartburn, aid in digestion and help relieve colic in infants. The Fennel Root has proved to be remarkable in its ability to improve vision! I use Fennel often in my herbal remedies and include the leaves and roots in the diet. With all of the positive aspects of this herb, there comes also the wonderful aroma! Fennel smells like licorice! Not some nasty black jellybean licorice but true old-fashioned, candy-jar licorice! Yep..Fennel is definitely one of my favorite herbs!

Then there is Dog Fennel. Not to be confused with the herb that is used in the kitchen, Dog Fennel is found in just about every field, ditch and empty lot in the entire Southeast! It does resemble the edible Fennel but oh, my goodness! That smell! The smell is not particularly bad just strong. There is no licorice smell to this plant! To me, it carries an odor of rancid green tea. (Although to be honest, I have never smelled rancid green tea..that is just what came to mind when I crushed a few of the leaves!)

I was out back behind the peach orchard when I accidentally rubbed against a tall Dog Fennel. The almost breath-consuming stench wafted around me causing even Ezzy, the dog, to sidestep the plant. Phew! She was not having anything to do with a plant that smells so potent! This caused me to start pondering if there was any known use for this plant. I never remember the cattle eating it back on the farm so it is obviously not used as fodder..but just what, if any, is the use of Dog Fennel. I am a firm believer that everything on Earth has some potential use if we just search for it. This evening, I searched all of my botany information on Dog Fennel..which admittedly is not a lot. I did find that all sources say that Dog Fennel is toxic if ingested, still there should be some value to this plant.

I delved further into my search. I finally found what seems to be a positive characteristic of Dog Fennel! That smell! It seems this same odor that offends the olfactory senses in humans and animals also is a problem for bugs! This herbaceous plant is a natural bug repellent! Of course as with any plant used topically, you should test it on a small area of skin before going hog-wild and slathering it all over your body but it is said to repel mosquitoes, gnats and ticks. I must try this! Living on the Bayou, there is an over-abundance of biting bugs and this plant might actually become one of my favorite weeds...ummm...herbs!