Lovage

Lovage is a tall, upright perennial of the carrot family, Apiaceae, and the only species in its genus, reaching about two and a half metres. Its glossy, deeply divided leaves recall parsley or celery, and in late spring it bears tiny yellow to greenish-yellow flowers in rounded umbels. It is native to Afghanistan and Iran, and has been introduced to most of Europe, parts of South-east Asia and the Americas. Long grown in Europe, it gives leaves for the kitchen, roots eaten as a vegetable and seeds used as a spice, all tasting like a sharper celery or parsley. Charlemagne's Capitulare de villis, written around 800, recommends growing it on royal estates, and in Cornwall a lovage cordial was added to brandy. The English name grew out of 'love-ache', a folk reshaping of the older French levesche, from the late Latin levisticum. Kynes traces its standing as a love herb to the Anglo-Saxons, whose name for it, lufestice, sounded close to the Latin; medieval Europe counted it an aphrodisiac, though it flavoured ale more often, and Romanian custom hung it on doors and windows against evil spirits. In Ukraine women rinsed their hair in an infusion of the leaves to draw men. Cunningham adds a sachet of it to the bath to make the bather more attractive.