Our farm is a true paradise for bees. The fields are dotted with flowering medicinal and culinary plants (calendula, chamomile, lemon balm, the lot) and the air hums all summer long. But there is one plant here that the bees treat differently. The moment anise hyssop comes into bloom, the rest of the farm seems quieter by comparison. The bees commit. They work the purple flower spikes from morning to evening, and they keep coming back.
Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) is a hardy perennial in the mint family, native to the prairies of central North America, grown for its licorice-scented leaves, its tall purple flower spikes, and the bees that never leave them alone. Gardeners know it as a pollinator plant. Herbalists know it as a gentle digestive and calming tea herb. Cooks know it for a sweet licorice-mint flavour that works in syrups and baking. This guide covers what anise hyssop is, what it is used for, how we grow it on our Quebec farm, and how to use it safely. For the practical side, see our guides to anise hyssop tea, anise hyssop uses, and cooking with anise hyssop.
What Is Anise Hyssop?
Anise hyssop is Agastache foeniculum, a member of the genus Agastache, the giant hyssops, a group of about twenty species found almost entirely in North America. The genus sits in the mint family (Lamiaceae), and the plant shows it: square stems, leaves in opposite pairs, and aromatic oils in the foliage. You will also see it described as giant hyssop, blue giant hyssop, lavender hyssop, or fragrant giant hyssop, and in the seed trade sometimes as licorice mint. All of those names point to the same plant. Despite the common name, it is not closely related to true hyssop or to anise, which are different plants from different families; the differences are covered in the names section below.
Where Anise Hyssop Is Native
Anise hyssop is a plant of the northern prairies. Its native range runs through the upper Midwest and the northern Great Plains of the United States, from Wisconsin west to Colorado, and north across Canada from British Columbia through the prairie provinces to Ontario and Quebec, in open prairie, dry upland woods, and field edges. So it is a native plant here too, and it overwinters reliably on our farm in Zone 4b. In gardens it is rated hardy to Zone 3 or 4, depending on the source, and grown through Zone 8.
What the Plant Looks Like
A mature plant forms an upright clump 60 to 120 cm tall (2 to 4 feet) and roughly 45 to 90 cm across. The leaves grow in opposite pairs, ovate to lance-shaped with toothed edges and a whitish underside, and they smell strongly of licorice and mint when crushed. From mid-July into September on our farm the stems carry dense spikes of small lavender-purple flowers, 8 to 15 cm long, that open from the bottom up over several weeks. Anise hyssop is a short-lived perennial: individual plants last a few seasons, and the patch renews itself from seed.
Is Anise Hyssop Invasive?
No. Anise hyssop is a North American native and a clump-former. It does have short rhizomes, but it does not run the way culinary mints do; the way it spreads is by self-seeding, and the seedlings are easy to recognize by their scent and easy to pull or move in spring. A few plants tend to become a small patch over the years, which is usually exactly what a pollinator garden wants. It tolerates drought once established, wants full sun and good drainage, and is not favoured by deer, though rabbits will eat it.
Anise Hyssop Benefits for People
The same aromatic compounds that draw the bees, chiefly methyl chavicol (also called estragole) at roughly 85 to 95 percent of the essential oil in published analyses, are also what give anise hyssop its quiet therapeutic profile. Herbalist sources describe the plant as carminative (digestive ease), gentle nervine (calming to the nervous system), and mild expectorant (helpful with congested coughs). Modern herbalists tend to reach for it when someone wants something gentler than peppermint for digestion or gentler than chamomile for nerves.
The plant has a long record of traditional use. Cheyenne people took a cold infusion of the leaves for chest pain from coughing and as a cold medicine, and used the leaves in steam baths to induce sweating. Chippewa (Ojibwa) people took an infusion of the root for coughs and chest colds and applied a poultice of the leaves or stalks to burns. Those uses are documented in Daniel Moerman's Native American Ethnobotany, which records the plant as a medicine across the northern plains and Great Lakes regions.
Digestive Support
Anise hyssop is a classic after-meal tea herb. Aromatic Lamiaceae herbs like anise hyssop have a long history of use as carminatives, traditionally credited to the action of their volatile oils on the smooth muscle of the digestive tract. It is mild enough to drink regularly and pairs well with other gentle digestive herbs like fennel or chamomile.
Calming the Nervous System
The same volatile oils that ease the gut also have a gentle uplifting effect on the nervous system. Anise hyssop is often used in evening tea blends for someone who feels wound up but not exhausted, the kind of restless tension that benefits from settling rather than sedation. It pairs especially well with lemon balm or a small amount of chamomile in a bedtime blend.
Respiratory Support
Traditionally, anise hyssop tea or steam has been used during head colds and congested coughs. The aromatic oils thin mucus and help open the breathing passages. This use is well documented in the ethnobotanical record, with the Cheyenne using the leaves in steam baths to induce sweating and taking the leaf infusion as a cold medicine.
Anise Hyssop Benefits for the Pollinators
The pollinator value of this plant is hard to overstate. Anise hyssop produces nectar-rich flowers from mid-July through early September on our farm, and the structure of the flower spike means there is always fresh forage available even as older blossoms fade. Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds all visit. Native bumblebees seem especially partial.
For anyone planting with pollinators in mind, anise hyssop is one of the highest-impact additions you can make to a garden. A single mature plant supports a remarkable amount of bee traffic, and because it is a perennial, that support compounds year over year. It also self-seeds gently, so a few plants tend to become a small patch with no intervention required.
How Anise Hyssop Is Used
Tea is the everyday use. Dried leaf and flower steeped covered for ten minutes or so gives a sweet, naturally caffeine-free cup that works after meals or in the evening. Ratios, steeping times, fresh versus dried, and blends are all in our guide to anise hyssop tea.
Beyond the teapot, the leaves go into infused honey, herbal vinegars, sachets, and steams, covered in our guide on anise hyssop uses. In the kitchen the licorice-mint flavour carries syrups, baking, cocktails, and fruit; our post on cooking with anise hyssop covers those in depth. Our Organic anise hyssop is the dried leaf-and-flower mix we use for all of it.
A Note on Names: Anise Hyssop, True Hyssop, and Anise
Three plants get tangled up in everyday conversation because their names overlap, and they are genuinely different.
Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) is a North American native in the mint family (Lamiaceae) with sweet, licorice-mint-flavoured leaves: gentle, well suited to daily tea, and the subject of this post. True hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) is a different plant: a bitter Mediterranean perennial, also in the mint family, that contains pinocamphone and carries pregnancy and seizure-disorder cautions that do not apply to anise hyssop. Anise (Pimpinella anisum) is something else again, a seed spice in the carrot family (Apiaceae), unrelated to either.
We grow both hyssops. For the full side-by-side (flavour, uses, growing, and safety) see our guide to hyssop vs anise hyssop; if you came looking for the bitter absinthe herb, our Organic hyssop page is here.
How We Grow Anise Hyssop
On our farm in Charlevoix, anise hyssop is one of the easier perennials we grow. We start seedlings indoors in early April and transplant after the last frost, typically late May or early June. The plants settle in quickly in our cool maritime climate and bloom heavily from mid-July through early September.
We harvest by hand when the flower spikes are just past full bloom, which is the window when the aromatic oils are most concentrated in the leaves. We dry the leaves and flowers together, low and slow, then hand-garble and package for sale. The leaf-and-flower mix preserves both the aromatic punch and the visual beauty of the plant. For a full sowing-to-harvest walkthrough, see our guide on how to grow anise hyssop.
Our Organic anise hyssop ships in 50g to 1kg sizes. For bulk and wholesale orders, please contact us directly.
A Note on Safety
Anise hyssop is one of the gentler herbs we grow and has a long food and tea history with no major safety incidents on record. That said, there is one piece of the picture worth understanding clearly because it shapes how to use this herb thoughtfully.
Estragole. The compound that gives anise hyssop its sweet licorice-anise flavour, methyl chavicol (also called estragole), has been studied extensively by the European Medicines Agency and the European Food Safety Authority. In its pure, concentrated form, estragole is classified as genotoxic and carcinogenic at high doses. In whole-plant form (the leaves and flowers used to brew tea), the situation is different: research on related estragole-containing herbs like fennel suggests the food matrix itself substantially modulates the risk, and adult occasional use of whole-leaf infusions falls within the regulatory low-concern range. The EMA position is that short-term adult use of herbal medicinal products containing estragole does not pose a significant cancer risk.
What this means in practice. Whole-leaf anise hyssop tea, used as one herb among many in a varied herbal routine, is reasonable for most adults. Concentrated essential oil should never be ingested. For pregnancy, breastfeeding, and young children, the EMA recommends minimizing concentrated estragole exposure, which means we suggest favouring lower-estragole herbs (chamomile, lemon balm, peppermint) for daily teas during those life stages, and saving anise hyssop for occasional rather than habitual use.
Allergies and medication interactions. As with any mint family plant, individuals with known sensitivities to Lamiaceae herbs (basil, oregano, peppermint, sage, lavender) should introduce anise hyssop cautiously. The herb has no widely documented medication interactions, but its gentle calming and digestive effects could theoretically support sedatives or digestive medications additively. If you take prescription medication and plan to use any herb regularly, mention it to your pharmacist or practitioner.
Anise hyssop is not a substitute for medical care. The traditional uses described above support digestion, calm, and respiratory comfort. They do not treat or cure disease.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is anise hyssop?
Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) is a hardy perennial herb in the mint family, native to the prairies of central North America. It grows 60 to 120 cm tall with licorice-scented leaves and spikes of purple flowers, and it is grown as a pollinator plant, a tea herb, and a culinary herb.
What is anise hyssop good for?
Anise hyssop is traditionally used to support digestion, ease nervous tension, and provide gentle respiratory comfort. It is also a highly valued pollinator plant and a versatile culinary herb with a sweet licorice-mint flavour.
Is anise hyssop the same as hyssop?
No. Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) and true hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) are different plants in the same family. Anise hyssop is sweet and gentle; true hyssop is bitter, more strongly medicinal, and has additional safety considerations including pinocamphone content. Anise (Pimpinella anisum) is a third plant entirely, in the carrot family. See our full hyssop vs anise hyssop comparison for the side-by-side.
Is anise hyssop invasive?
No. Anise hyssop is a clump-forming North American native. It has short rhizomes but does not run the way culinary mints do; it spreads mainly by self-seeding, and the seedlings are easy to move or pull.
Where is anise hyssop native to?
The upper Midwest and northern Great Plains of the United States, from Wisconsin to Colorado, and across Canada from British Columbia through the prairie provinces to Ontario and Quebec, in open prairie and dry upland woods.
Can you drink anise hyssop tea every day?
For most adults, occasional to regular use of whole-leaf anise hyssop tea is reasonable and consistent with European Medicines Agency guidance on estragole-containing herbal teas. As with any single-herb routine, vary your blends and rotate other herbs in. For pregnancy, breastfeeding, or young children, we suggest favouring lower-estragole alternatives (chamomile, lemon balm, peppermint) for daily teas.
Where can I buy Organic anise hyssop?
We grow Certified Organic anise hyssop on our farm in Charlevoix, Quebec, and ship in 50g to 1kg sizes directly from the farm. See our Organic anise hyssop page for details.
Want to learn more? Check out our other guides on anise hyssop:
- Anise Hyssop Tea: How to Make It, Benefits, Taste & Blends
- How to Grow Anise Hyssop From Seed: Planting, Care & Harvest
- Anise Hyssop Uses: Tea, Preparations, and Everyday Applications
- Cooking with Anise Hyssop: Recipes, Taste, and Culinary Uses
- Anise Hyssop: 9 Things to Know About This Pollinator Favourite
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