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Satureja montana
Also called Perennial savory, Savory
Winter savory is a low, semi-evergreen perennial herb grown for its leaves in cooking. It needs full sun and very well-draining, alkaline soil to thrive.
Satureja montana (winter savory or mountain savory), is a perennial, semi-evergreen herb in the family Lamiaceae, native to warm temperate regions of southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Africa. It has dark green leaves and summer flowers ranging from pale lavender, pink to white. The closely related summer savory (Satureja hortensis L.) is an annual plant.
There is evidence of its use about 2000 years ago by the ancient Romans and Greeks.
Winter savory is easy to grow and can be used as a culinary herb garden edging plant. It requires six hours of sun per day and well-draining soil. In temperate climates it becomes dormant in winter, putting out leaves on the bare stems in the spring. While dormant, it should not be cut back; stems which appear dead will leaf-out again. Winter savory is hardy and has a low-bunching habit.
Satureja montana is native to temperate areas between Europe, the Mediterranean, and Africa.
In cooking, winter savory has a reputation for going very well with both beans and meats, very often lighter meats such as chicken or turkey, and can be used in stuffing. It can also be used in soups and sauces. It has a strong flavour (stronger than summer savory) while uncooked but loses much of its flavour with prolonged cooking. It can be added to breadcrumbs as a coating for various meats including trout.
Satureja coerulea · Summer savory · Satureja spicigera · Persian zatar · Savory
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Winter savory 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.
