Catnip
Catnip is a perennial that emits a mint odor when it is crushed. It is famous for inducing a stimulated and delirious state in felines.
Scientific Name: Nepeta cataria
Common Name: Catmint, catwort, field balm
Plant Family: Lamiaceae (Mint)
Etymology: Genus name originated from the Latin name for certain aromatic plants such as catmint. In addition, it may honor the city of Nepete (known as Nepi today) which was seen as the center of the Etruscan civilization.
Traditional Uses
Traditionally used as a medicinal plant to produce a sedative effect in humans. It has also been long used for relieving coughs.
Medicinal Uses
Catnip is a antispasmodic used for relieving gas and indigestion. It is a specific remedy for infant colic. To continue, it can be used as a sedative for treating fever, headache, and sleeplessness. However, it is not to be used during pregnancy. It can also be used for anxiety and stress relief. When catnip is fresh and bruised it can be used to make cats happy!
Edible Parts
When leaves and flowers are harvested in the early flowering stage they can be used fresh or dry without the stem. The buds and young leaves can be used in a salad.
Gathering and Using
Can be used for gardens or as path edging and borders. Additionally, can be grown for herbal use, as an ornamental, and for your cat!
Permaculture Functions and Considerations
It is one of the most deer resistant plants in the Northwest and also deters squash bugs and aphids.
Habitat
Catnip is native to Europe and Asia however it can also be found in parking lots, roadsides, dumps, fields, flower beds, disturbed sites, shores, railroads, and old homesites. It has also over time naturalized to many areas including southern Canada and the US.
How to Identify
Its leaves have hair, pointed tips, and a triangular/heart shape. Its stems are a pale green with short white hairs. Its flowers are white or pale purple with dark purple spots. Its pod contains four seeds that are smooth, oval, and red/brown with two white spots are one end.
Wildlife Support
It can reproduce by seed or vegetatively by rhizomes and supports hummingbirds, various bee species, and the larval stage of some butterflies.
Additional Information
There are about 250 species of perennial herbs in the Nepeta genus. Some of them including catmint and Syrian catnip are aromatic and can be used as tea herbs for digestive help and good taste.
Sources