Lamb's Ear

Lamb’s Ear is such a cool herb!  The scientific name is Stachys byzantina and it is native to Turkey, Armenia and Iran.  The silvery evergreen leaves are soft and furry and almost feel like velvet.  It’s grown more for the texture of the leaves, but it does also produce tiny purple flowers on tall stalks that the bees absolutely adore.

Lamb’s ear is another very drought tolerant plant and needs well drained soil.  It develops crown rot if it stays too wet.

One word of warning… it will spread.  A lot.  The seedlings are easy to identify for weeding, but there will be a lot of them.  You can hold down the spreading a little bit by cutting of the flower stalks. I have seen lamb’s ear listed as an invasive species, and I’m sure it is somewhere, but it is not on the Texas Invasive Species database.  You might, however, check with your local county extension office before planting it.

This is not one I would pay for at the nursery.  It is just to easy to get one from someone that is already growing it.

Lamb’s ear is a medicinal herb rather than a culinary herb. It also goes by the name “Woundwort” because it was once used as a styptic and to bandage wounds.  It may also have antiseptic properties.    It is also supposedly a great companion herb that helps other plants grow better.