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Ruta chalepensis
Fringed rue is a Mediterranean subshrub grown for its aromatic, divided leaves and bright yellow flowers, and it is a notable culinary and medicinal herb in Ethiopia. It is a species in the citrus family, Rutaceae, and is often grown in gardens rather than as a houseplant.
Ruta chalepensis is a species of flowering plant in the Rutaceae family known by the common name fringed rue. It is native to the Mediterranean and is found elsewhere as an introduced species. It is a perennial herb growing up to 80 centimeters tall. The leaves are compound, each divided into several segments which are subdivided into smaller leaflets. The inflorescence is a cluster of flowers, each with four or five bright yellow petals with rolled, fringed edges. The fruit is a textured capsule which is divided into pointed lobes.
In traditional herbal medicine, the plant is used for a number of ailments, such as fever and inflammation.
R. chalepensis is an introduced species in Ethiopia, where it is cultivated in gardens in almost every province of the country and used as a culinary herb. The seeds are used to flavour wats and the leaves as a condiment in coffee and tea. Called Tena adam (Adam's health) in Amharic, it is used in the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Its dried fruit are marketed as a spice in Western countries, often under the name "passion berries" since the odour is said to resemble passion fruit.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ruta chalepensis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
