Santa Monica Mirror: Fennel

MAK, my illustrator, is a hot-house flower. As pleasant as she finds piney woods and the sumac scented chaparral, nothing, she says, beats the smell of wet concrete in the morning—when she’s awake to see the morning.

She was pleased to learn we wouldn’t have to go to wild places where dirt and weeds run wild this week. One needs go no further than the nearest weed patch, (in this case, the construction site across the street) to find a hunk of fennel.

I hadn’t realized how abundant fennel is, especially at this time of year. Daily driving past the stuff had made me blind to the translucent curtains of thready blue-green foliage that march beside the road, up the Coast Highway, and down the canyons, in any and every sidewalk crack which is to say, out of every quarter-inch square of bare dirt it can find.

Tiny butter-yellow flowers bloom in three- to five- inch clusters --flat topped-parasols of yellowy lace on tiny rib-like pedicels are held high above an old-fashioned "chub" of feathery leaves. The filiform leaves are divided into thread-like segments. As if to compensate for their delicacy, the striated petioles (leaf stalks) swell as they reach down to clasp the stem.

Its aromatic leaves offer a promise of licorice. Turn it over and smell the base. When we visited wild places, we used to keep a stalk in hand just for the pleasure of sniffing. It’s not only edible but tasty, if the variety of creatures that ingest it are any indication. (I am not one of them.)

The foliage is considered a delicacy by caterpillars, particularly, the black-and-white banded ones that grow into swallowtail butterflies.

Wild birds hop all over its dead flower heads in search of the oily seed they contain.

And humans, yes, we humans enjoy fennel, too—or so I’ve heard.

The leaves can be used in a salad or as a garnish.

Some folks boil the bulbous petioles and call them a vegetable.

Fennel seeds are good in baked goods and puddings.

One member of the herbal contingent says its oil is useful in anti-cellulite massage. (Gangway, ladies!)

Traditionally, the herb has been used to increase milk in nursing mothers, as well as longevity, courage and strength, to improve eyesight, neutralize poisons and cure obesity , and to treat ailments of the liver, spleen, gall bladder and general digestive system.

Showy flowers and attractive foliage make it a good bet in the landscape and it’s easily grown, as evidenced by the massive numbers in all the low-maintenance places.

Although not a native Californian, this European émigré has a high-degree of drought tolerance which prevents its going brown and yucky come summer-dormant season. For this reason, landscapers tend to use it as a summer annual although the plant, given a chance, will return green and fluffy next year.

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