Everything about Mignonette Reseda totally explained
Mignonette (
Reseda) is a
genus of fragrant
herbaceous plants native to the
Mediterranean region and southwest
Asia, from the
Canary Islands and
Iberia east to northwest
India. The species include annuals, biennials and perennials, and grow to 40-130 cm tall. The
leaves form a basal rosette at ground level, and then spirally arranged up the stem; they can be entire, toothed or pinnate, and range from 1-15 cm long. The
flowers are produced in a slender spike, each flower small (4-6 mm diameter), white, yellow, orange, or green, with four to six petals. The
fruit is a small dry capsule containing several seeds.
Other common names include
Weld (
R. luteola),
Dyer's Rocket, Bastard Rocket and Sweet Reseda.
Cultivation and uses
Propagation is by seed, which is surface-sown directly into the garden or grass verge. The plant doesn't take well to transplanting and shouldn't be moved after sowing.
Mignonette flowers are not especially attractive but are extremely fragrant. It is grown for the sweet
ambrosial scent of its flowers. It is used in flower arrangements,
perfumes and
potpourri. A
Victorian favourite, it was commonly grown in pots and in window-boxes to scent the city air. It was used as a
sedative and a treatment for bruises in
Roman times. The volatile oil is used in
perfumery. The yellow
dye was obtained from the roots of
R. luteola by the
first millennium BC, and perhaps earlier than either
woad or
madder. Use of this dye came to an end at the beginning of the twentieth century, when cheaper synthetic yellow dyes came into use.
Charles Darwin used
R. odorata in his studies of self-fertilised plants, which he documented in
The Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mignonette Reseda'.
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