English: Blue Licorice; Purple Giant Hyssop; Huo Xiang; Chinese Patchouli.
Dutch: Dropplant.
Synonym: Lophanthus rugosus.
Name: Agastache is derived from the Greek roots agan = very much, and Stachys = spike.
Region: East Asia, Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam.
Habitat: partly shaded to sunny; prefers dry, well-drained, acid to near neutral soil, rich in organic matter; not frost tender; edges of shaded areas, mid-section of borders, bee plant.
Content: essential oil; estragole; isomenthone; limonene.
Use: medicinal, in Traditional Chinese, and Japanese
Medicine; aromatic, and medicinally useful; young leaves, raw or cooked, as a flavouring, addition to the salads, tea with pleasant flavour; seed edible; Chinese herbalism, one of the 50 fundamental herbs.
BotanyHerb; pungent, acrid; perennial, 2 to 3 years; to 1 m, by 0.6 m; similar to anise hyssop.
Stem: very woody at the base.
Leaves: wrinkle.
Inflorescence: flower spikes tightly packed with whorls of flowers.
Flowers: hermaphrodite, self-fertile; brightly violet, rose-violet; fragrant; flowering from July to September.
Pollination: by bees.