Perilla

Description: Perilla is an annual. It grows up to 3 feet tall. Wrinkled, serrate, broad ovate, medium green leaves are sometimes tinged with purple. Leaves are aromatic when crushed. Two-lipped nettle-like white flowers in spike-like bloom at the stem tips in late summer and fall. Flowers are not particularly showy. The flowers later convert to seed pods that can rattle. The seed pods may be reminiscent of the end of a rattlesnake's tail.

Edible Parts: Young seedlings, seed, seed oil, and leaves.

Notes: I have been noticing this plant for several years, it seemed very familiar to me. I thought it might be a close relative to Stinging Nettle, because it slightly resembles nettle. It is not related to nettles. I've observed it mostly along the vast expanse of paved trails in the Metro East that are adjacent to deep woods. When the woods meet the trails it grows every ten yards or so in colonies. This plant did not jump out at me as being particularly edible. However, my friend Phyllis let me know she found someone harvesting it, and enlightened me on the plant's name. What I found bizarre is that this edible plant seems to grow all over and that it is not addressed or written about in any of my dozens of foraging books, NONE!!! One conclusion is that it is newly invasive and the authors did not grow up seeing this plant. According to The Origins of Agriculture, this plant has been cultivated in Japan as a vegetable for at least 8000 years. Perilla in some form or another is one of those plants that are ingrained in Asian Cultures, and westerners are just a lot less familiar with it. It would be fun to imagine if corn became newly invasive in Japan, and some Japanese nature junkie like me was walking along some field and was like,...."You can eat this? Part of this plant is in most American meals?"

I have seen versions of this plant in greenhouses for sale as a house plant, and I've noticed it in people's homes throughout the years. One of the reason's that it registered in my brain is that it a marketed as "Beefsteak". It is an Asian food, but American decor....interesting. I just didn't put 2 and 2 together as I was walking past the wild versions on the trails.

When dead and dried in the late fall the entire plant is a bronze-brown color that is unique, amongst the other dead winter plants. This helps me see it at far distances. Because of the unique arrangement of the dried seed pods and the unique color, this plant jumps out at me when I'm scanning for plants in the winter.

According to Green Deane at Eattheweeds.com some people can suffer from dermatitis when in contact with Perilla, like poison ivy. Luckily my skin has been fine, and I nibble right off the plant.

The Korean name for Perilla translates to Sesame Leaf. The plant is related to mint and basal. It is not Sesame or related to Sesame.

The Latin name Perilla originates from an early Roman sexual female character. Green Deane wrote, " Perilla was a common proper name in the 1800s for girls in America was at its invention used to protect the public identity of a woman who wrote racy erotic poetry and slept around. And perhaps that is why the species is called Perilla, it’s attractive, spicy, and gets around."

Contributor:

JRH