What's This Herb? Use Flickr for Garden Reference

Last week I found a tall, fragrant plant growing in a weedy corner of my little yard. It looked like lemon balm, an herb that has a sweet lemon aroma and makes a really wonderful herbal tea. But was it really lemon balm, or just a weed? I turned to my new favorite garden reference point: Flickr.

The sheer mass of photos on the photo-sharing site Flickr make it a great resource for cooks and gardeners. In this case I searched for lemon balm on Flickr, and came up with nearly 2000 results. I would never base a plant identification on just one or two anecdotal photos, of course, but browsing through several dozen images of lemon balm in various stages of growth confirmed that, yes, I had a healthy lemon balm on my hands. (In fact, exploring more of the yard has turned up even more of it; it turns out that lemon balm is in the mint family, which means that no matter how often I tear it out, lemon balm will always be around. Never put this stuff in the ground!)

Overall, as I have been gardening like mad this spring, Flickr has been a wonderful resource. Want to know what a baby dahlia should look like? Check Flickr. Want to know if a sprout is a radish or a weed? Look through Flickr. Want to see what Pink Beauty tomatoes will look like when they're all grown up? You get the idea.

• Visit Flickr

(Image: Flickr member Jess, Beemouse Labs licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Um, why did you go on the internet to find out what it was, when you could have just scrunched some in your fingers and smelled it??? That would have confirmed your suspicion a lot more quickly and pleasantly than going inside, turning on the computer, and searching for pictures of your plant.

What a strange world.

posted by RosieGreenie on June 8th 2009 at 11:34am
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@RosieGreenie, indeed I did crush it and smell it. That's what first made me think it was lemon balm. But I have never grown lemon balm, so I wanted to see more photos of it before I picked it and drank it in tea. Never hurts to be careful, right?

And for what it's worth, I double-checked by looking at some lemon balm plants at the market down the road.

posted by faith on June 8th 2009 at 11:39am
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i was going to say it looked a bit like mint, so im glad to find out its related to mint. i wasnt too far off!

they are aggressive plants, my pot of mint puts all my other herbs to shame the way it grows, i had to move it to a different area because it was actually starting to take over the table and crowd the other herbs. I will have to see about drying and preserving some of the leaves.

flickr is a great research point for many many things, not just plant identification, i almost find it better than google images as you get pretty strange things from google. I think because people are more methodical and careful when tagging.

posted by adamwa on June 8th 2009 at 11:44am
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I would trade you your lemon balm for the bamboo in my backyard anyday :(

posted by libbyhunt on June 8th 2009 at 12:21pm
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