Tarragon
perennial herb with an aniseed scent
Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), also known as estragon, is a species of perennial herb in the family Asteraceae. It is widespread in the wild across much of Eurasia and North America and is cultivated for culinary and medicinal purposes.
One subspecies, Artemisia dracunculus var. sativa, is cultivated to use the leaves as an aromatic culinary herb. In some other subspecies, the characteristic aroma is largely absent. Informal names for distinguishing the variations include "French tarragon" (best for culinary use) and "Russian tarragon".
Tarragon grows to 120–150 centimetres (4–5 feet) tall, with slender branches. The leaves are lanceolate, 2–8 cm (1–3 in) long and 2–10 mm (1⁄8–3⁄8 in) broad, glossy green, with an entire margin. The flowers are produced in small capitula 2–4 mm (1⁄16–3⁄16 in) diameter, each capitulum containing up to 40 yellow or greenish-yellow florets. French tarragon, however, seldom produces any flowers (or seeds).
“Tarragon” enters the record as perennial herb with an aniseed scent. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tarragon, perennial and herb can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tarragon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.