Rosemary

Overview

Rosemary grows by the sea, or so the old name says — ros marinus, dew of the sea. It is a Mediterranean shrub of dry, rocky slopes, dense with narrow, resinous, intensely aromatic leaves, that has accompanied the dead and the living in equal measure for thousands of years. At funerals it is cast into graves. At weddings it is woven into crowns. Students in ancient Athens wore it at their brows during examinations. Thieves once tried to steal it — there is an old belief that it only grows in the gardens of the righteous, which, if true, has surprising implications for the herb sections of most supermarkets. The smell of it is the smell of remembrance: sharp, resinous, insistent, unwilling to let go.

Botanical Notes

A dense, woody, aromatic shrub reaching 50–200cm with linear, leathery leaves — dark green above, white-felted beneath — packed with volatile oil glands. Small, two-lipped flowers of pale blue to lilac from late winter through spring and often again in autumn. Native to the dry, rocky coasts of the Mediterranean; cultivated throughout the temperate world. Among the most extensively studied culinary and medicinal herbs — rosemarinic acid, its primary polyphenol, has demonstrated significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity.

Lore & History

Rosemary's association with memory is ancient and persistent. The Greeks garlanded students with it; Ophelia in Hamlet distributes it saying "there's rosemary, that's for remembrance." It was laid on graves across European cultures — not merely as an offering, but with the conviction that it could carry the living in the memory of the dead, or the dead in the memory of the living. Hungary Water, the first recorded perfume in Western history (circa 1370), was a rosemary distillate. It was used in plague preparations, in protective charms, in love magic. In Spanish folk tradition, rosemary growing lush in a woman's garden meant the woman ran the household. This was not considered a neutral observation.

Warnings