Fennel Sweet Essential Oil

Foeniculum vulgare, called common fennel, is an upright, branching perennial that is typically grown in vegetable and herb gardens for its anise-flavored foliage and seeds, both of which are commonly harvested for use in cooking. It somewhat resembles a very large dill plant. It grows to 3-5’ (less frequently to 6’) tall and features feathery, compound, aromatic, yellow-green leaves with needle-like segments and tiny yellow flowers in large, flattened, compound umbels. Flowers bloom in mid- to late summer, and are followed by aromatic seeds. Plants have escaped gardens and naturalized in many parts of North America. Flowers are very attractive to butterflies. Fennel is a larval plant for certain swallowtail butterflies.

Foeniculum vulgare Mill. is a biennial medicinal and aromatic plant belonging to the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferaceae). It is a hardy, perennial–umbelliferous herb with yellow flowers and feathery leaves. It grows to a height of up to 2.5 m with hollow stems. The leaves grow up to 40 cm long; they are finely dissected with the ultimate segments filiform (thread like) of about 0.5 mm wide. The flowers are produced in terminal compound umbels. The fruit is a dry seed 4–10 mm long. It is generally considered indigenous to the shores of Mediterranean Sea but has become widely naturalized in many parts of the world especially on dry soils near the sea coast and on the river banks. Some authors distinguish two sub-species of fennel, piperitum and vulgare: sub-species piperitum has bitter seeds, while sub-species vulgare has sweet seeds which are used as flavoring agents in baked goods, meat and fish dishes, ice creams, alcoholic beveragesetc, due to their characteristic anise odor. Morphological differences between these two sub-species are not always clearly defined.