Mignonette

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Mignonette

Mignonette (Reseda) is a genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
of fragrant herbaceous
Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaf and stem that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. A herbaceous plant may be Annual plant, Biennial plant or Perennial plant....
plants native to the Mediterranean region and southwest Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, from the Canary Islands
Canary Islands

The Canary Islands are a Spain archipelago which, in turn, forms one of the Spanish Autonomous Communities and an Outermost Region of the European Union....
and Iberia
Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France....
east to northwest India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
. The species include annuals, biennials and perennials, and grow to 40-130 cm tall. The leaves
Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
form a basal rosette at ground level, and then spirally arranged up the stem; they can be entire, toothed or pinnate, and range from 1-15 cm long.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Mignonette'

Start a new discussion about 'Mignonette'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Mignonette (Reseda) is a genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
of fragrant herbaceous
Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaf and stem that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. A herbaceous plant may be Annual plant, Biennial plant or Perennial plant....
plants native to the Mediterranean region and southwest Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, from the Canary Islands
Canary Islands

The Canary Islands are a Spain archipelago which, in turn, forms one of the Spanish Autonomous Communities and an Outermost Region of the European Union....
and Iberia
Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France....
east to northwest India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
. The species include annuals, biennials and perennials, and grow to 40-130 cm tall. The leaves
Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
form a basal rosette at ground level, and then spirally arranged up the stem; they can be entire, toothed or pinnate, and range from 1-15 cm long. The flower
Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s are produced in a slender spike, each flower small (4-6 mm diameter), white, yellow, orange, or green, with four to six petals. The fruit
Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
is a small dry capsule containing several seeds.

Other common names include Weld (R. luteola), Dyer's Rocket, Bastard Rocket and Sweet Reseda.

Cultivation and uses
Propagation is by seed, which is surface-sown directly into the garden or grass verge. The plant does not take well to transplanting and should not be moved after sowing.

Mignonette flowers are not especially attractive but are extremely fragrant. It is grown for the sweet ambrosia
Ambrosia

In ancient Greek mythology, ambrosia is sometimes the food, sometimes the drink, of the Greek gods, often depicted as conferring ageless immortality upon whoever consumes it....
l scent of its flowers. It is used in flower arrangements, perfume
Perfume

Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces a pleasant smell....
s and potpourri
Potpourri

Potpourri is a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant material, used to provide a gentle natural scent in houses. It is usually placed in a decorative wooden bowl, or tied in small bags made from sheer fabric....
. A Victorian
Victorian era

The Victorian Era of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the period of Victoria of the United Kingdom reign from June 1837 to January 1901....
favourite, it was commonly grown in pots and in window-boxes to scent the city air. It was used as a sedative
Sedative

A sedative is a substance that induces sedation by reducing irritability or excitement.At higher doses it may result in slurred speech, staggering gait , poor judgment, and slow, uncertain reflexes....
and a treatment for bruises in Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
times. The volatile oil is used in perfume
Perfume

Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces a pleasant smell....
ry. The yellow dye
Dye

A dye can generally be described as a colored substance that has an Chemical affinity to the Wiktionary:substrate to which it is being applied....
was obtained from the roots of R. luteola by the first millennium BC, and perhaps earlier than either woad
Woad

Woad is the common name of the flowering plant Isatis tinctoria in the family Brassicaceae. It is commonly called dyer's woad, and sometimes incorrectly listed as Isatis indigotica ....
or madder
Madder

Rubia is a genus of the madder family Rubiaceae, which contains about 60 species of perennial scrambling or climbing herbs and sub-shrubs native to the Old World, Africa, temperate Asia and America....
. Use of this dye came to an end at the beginning of the twentieth century, when cheaper synthetic yellow dyes came into use.

Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin Royal Society was an English people natural history who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolution over time from common descent, through the process he called natural selection....
used R. odorata in his studies of self-fertilised plants, which he documented in The Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom.

External links

- Offers more information about mignonette.