Plant · P-623

Mexican Oregano

Lippia origanoides

Mexican Oregano gives Mexican and Central American cooking its stronger, less-sweet oregano flavor - and despite the name it is not the same plant as European oregano, a different genus entirely. It thrives on rocky, calcium-rich limestone ground that most herbs reject, needs almost no water once established, and flowers for most of the frost-free season, feeding butterflies and bees for months at a stretch. Its real limit is cold - leaves and stems die back around 28 F (-2 C) - so where winters drop below that it has to be container-grown and brought under cover, or treated as a plant to replace each year.