Taxon: Melissa officinalis L.

Common names:

• balm   (Source: Food Feed Crops US ) – English
  
• beebalm   (Source: Crops US ) – English
  
• lemonbalm   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – English
  
• melissa   (Source: Adv Lab Sci ) – English
  
• xiang feng hua   (Source: F ChinaEng ) – Transcribed Chinese
  
• mélisse officinale   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – French
  
• Zitronenmelisse   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – German
  
• erva-cidreira   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Portuguese
  
• melissa lekarstvennaja   (Source: Mansf Ency ) – Transliterated Russian
  
• citraria   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• citronmeliss   (Source: Vara kulturvaxt namn ) – Swedish
  

More:

see MMPND for additional names in foreign scripts

Economic importance:

• Food additives: flavoring   (fide L Edible Pl; F USSR)
  
• Bee plants: honey production   (fide F USSR)
  
• Environmental: ornamental   (fide Dict Gard)
  
• Materials: essential oils   (used in perfumery fide F USSR; F ChinaEng)
  
• Medicines: folklore   (fide CRC MedHerbs ed2; Herbs Commerce ed2)
  

More:

View phytochemical or ethnobotanical data from Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

Distributional range:

• AFRICA
  Macaronesia: Portugal - Madeira Islands; Spain - Canary Islands
  Northern Africa: Morocco; Tunisia
• ASIA-TEMPERATE
  Western Asia: Cyprus; Iran; Iraq; Israel; Lebanon; Syria; Turkey
  Caucasus: Armenia; Azerbaijan; Georgia; Russian Federation - Ciscaucasia
  Middle Asia: Kyrgyzstan; Tajikistan; Turkmenistan
• ASIA-TROPICAL
  Indian Subcontinent: Pakistan [n.]
• EUROPE
  East Europe: Belarus; Russian Federation - European part [s.]; Ukraine [incl. Krym]
  Southeastern Europe: Albania; Bulgaria; Former Yugoslavia; Greece [incl. Crete]; Italy [incl. Sardinia, Sicily]; Romania
  Southwestern Europe: France - Corsica; Portugal; Spain [incl. Baleares]

• widely cultivated in temperate regions

References:

• Aldén, B., S. Ryman & M. Hjertson. 2009. Våra kulturväxters namn - ursprung och användning. Formas, Stockholm (Handbook on Swedish cultivated and utility plants, their names and origin).
• Davis, P. H., ed. 1965–1988. Flora of Turkey and the east Aegean islands.
• Duke, J. A. et al. 2002. CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop (on-line resource).
• Greuter, W. et al., eds. 1984–. Med-Checklist.
• Hanelt, P., ed. 2001. Mansfeld's encyclopedia of agricultural and horticultural crops. Volumes 1-6.
• Huxley, A., ed. 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening.
• Izquierdo Z., I. et al., eds. 2004. Lista de especies silvestres de Canarias: hongos, plantas y animales terrestres.
• Komarov, V. L. et al., eds. 1934–1964. Flora SSSR.
• Kunkel, G. 1984. Plants for human consumption.
• Lawrence, B. M. 1992. Chemical components of Labiatae oils and their exploitation. In: Harley, R. M. & T. Reynolds, eds., Advances in labiate science. 400.
• Lazarides, M. & B. Hince. 1993. CSIRO Handbook of Economic Plants of Australia.
• Leung, A. Y. & S. Foster. 1996. Encyclopedia of common natural ingredients used in food, drugs, and cosmetics, ed. 2.
• Magness, J. R. et al. 1971. Food and feed crops of the United States. IR Bull. 1.
• Markle, G. M. et al., eds. 1998. Food and feed crops of the United States, ed. 2.
• McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker. 2000. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2.
• Mouterde, P. 1966–. Nouvelle flore du Liban et de la Syrie.
• Mun-Chan, B. et al. 1986. A checklist of the Korean cultivated plants. Kulturpflanze 34:110.
• Nasir, E. & S. I. Ali, eds. 1970–. Flora of [West] Pakistan.
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) (on-line resource).
• Rehm, S. 1994. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants.
• Tutin, T. G. et al., eds. 1964–1980. Flora europaea.
• Wu Zheng-yi & P. H. Raven et al., eds. 1994–. Flora of China (English edition).
• Zohary, M. & N. Feinbrun-Dothan. 1966–. Flora palaestina.

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Melissa officinalis.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Melissa officinalis.

Search Biodiversity Heritage Library for historical publications referencing Melissa officinalis.

Check other web resources for Melissa officinalis L.:

• Flora Europaea: Database of European Plants (ESFEDS)
• PLANTS: USDA-NRCS Database of Plants of the United States and its Territories
• Flora of China: Online version from Harvard University
• Mansfeld: Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.

Images:

• Flower: U.S. National Seed Herbarium image
• Seed: U.S. National Seed Herbarium image

More:

• Check PlantSystematics.org for additional images
• Images Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

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