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Confusion No. 1: Are your plants correctly named?
(or “My ‘Munstead’ looks different from my neighbour’s”)
Lavenders cross-pollinate to produce seed and also hybridise between themselves
(this is true of all the five sections with the genus Lavandula). This
means that seed never runs true to it’s parent plant. Thus, for example,
‘Munstead’ grown from seed (very common these days) may differ from true
‘Munstead’, particularly if the seed has been gathered from ‘Munstead’
grown near other lavenders, where hybridisation may have occurred.
Nevertheless, nurserymen sell such plants as ‘Munstead’. If they
then breed or grow from the seed of such plants, within two or three
generations you have a plant labelled as ‘Munstead’ which is totally
different.
Equally, it has been known that a nurseryman sees a cultivar which, at first
glance, has similar characteristics to another well-known (and perhaps more
desirable) cultivar. The nurseryman assumes that the two cultivars are the
same, when in fact they are not. Thus we have three cultivars named ‘Twickle
Purple’ in our National Collection, all distinctly different.
Therefore, if you are seeking plants of named varieties, obtain them only
from nurseries which propagate from cuttings or by micropropagation.
Confusion No. 2: ‘Spica’, ‘Officinallis’ and ‘Vera’
These three names are often confused with each other and have all been used by
various people to describe a single species, L. angustifolia. Botanists recognise
that only L. angustifolia is the correct name for this species.
‘L. Spica’ was a name invented by the Swedish botanist Linnaeus (after whom
Linn Chilvers was named) as an umbrella term when undertaking the classification
of plants in 1753. In his classification of lavenders, he failed to distinguish
between L. latifolia and L. angustifolia. To confuse matters further, ‘spike
lavender’ is the common name of L. latifolia, and the Latin spica means ‘spike’.
Consequently, the name ‘L. spica’ has been used for both L. angustifolia
and L. latifolia, and latterly ‘L. spica’ was used primarily as a synonym
for L. latifolia and for those cultivars of L. x intermedia displaying
strong characteristics of L. latifolia. To resolve the confusion, the
use of the name ‘L. spica’ was dropped. However, gardeners and sellers
of plants (who are reluctant to change or discard labels) do not always
move as fast as their scientific colleagues so the errors persist.
To avoid confusion the term ‘L. Spica’ should not be used as a botanical
label.
‘L. officinalis’ is a later alternative name L. angustifolia which
should no longer be used, as is ‘L. vera’ meaning ‘true lavender’).
However, ‘L. vera’ has also been used erroneously by the English nursery
trade as the botanical name for the L. x intermedia ‘Dutch Lavender
group’ (see also below, Confusion No. 3). The term ‘L. vera’ should
therefore not be used.
Confusion No. 3: National names
Common names denoting countries of origin such as ‘English Lavender’,
‘Dutch Lavender’, and ‘French Lavender’, while easier on the tongue
than Latin names, are probably the main source of confusion.
Problems occur in both the Lavandula and Stoechas sections.
Section Lavandula: In Australasia and the USA, this section is often
referred to as ‘English Lavender’. As will be seen below, the section contains
more than one species, so the use of the expression ‘English Lavender’ as
a botanical label is very imprecise.
We do not know why the word ‘English’ became attached to these lavenders,
but I would speculate as follows:
- It distinguishes section Lavandula from section Stoechas, which is
often called ‘French Lavender’ (see below).
- The lavenders commonly grown in English gardens and bred by English
nurserymen were from this section. They are the hardiest lavenders
and the ones most likely to have been imported by the first American
settlers, many of whom were English.
As the taxonomy of lavenders is now more accurate, we believe that
national names are misleading except when used to define the country of
origin of lavender oil or flowers rather than the species of a plant.
As with all rules, however, there is an exception: ‘Dutch Lavender’.
This term was used by the English nursery trade to describe a vigorous L.
x intermedia with silver foliage and pale lavender flowers which
presumably originated from Holland. Because of taxonomic promiscuity
within the nursery trade, there are several cultivars which are
described as ‘Dutch Lavender’, so these have now been classified
as ‘L. intermedia: Dutch Lavender group’.
Section Stoechas: ‘French Lavender’, ‘Spanish Lavender’ and
‘Italian Lavender’ are names which I have heard applied to plants
within this section; all three have been applied to both L. Stoechas
ssp pedunculata and L. Stoechas ssp stoechas at various times.
Miller, the eighteenth-century creator of the Chelsea Physick Garden,
uses the term ‘French Lavender’ to refer to the whole Stoechas section.
As with the name ‘English Lavender’ and L. angustifolia, there are
now so many cultivars and subspecies that the term ‘French Lavender’
has become unacceptably imprecise.
Confusion No. 4: Is English Lavender oil the finest in
the world?
English Lavender oil does not come from plants which the confused might
describe as ‘English Lavender’ (see above). For perfumery and aromatherapy
purposes that would be far too wide a definition. Equally, as all lavender
oil used commercially is derived from section Lavandula, growers in countries
other than England would object to having their oil described as ‘English
Lavender oil’. Therefore, ‘English Lavender oil’ can only refer to oil
distilled from lavender (L. angustifolia) grown in England; there is a
distinct difference between lavender oil and lavandin oil (see below).
There are many sources of high quality lavender (L. angustifolia) oil around
the world, among them England, Tasmania, France, Eastern Europe and China.
In Tasmania, the oil from the Bridestowe Estate is the result of many years’
breeding by the Denny family. It is of exceptional quality with a very high
content of Octinone-3.
French oil, if you can be sure of its origin, is wonderful. Unfortunately
much French lavender oil is sold not by the growers but by merchants.
In the process it may have passed through several hands and been ‘stretched’,
‘commercialised’ or ‘adjusted’.
Our English oil is different in two ways. Firstly, we grow our own varieties,
not available elsewhere. Secondly, we are at a much higher latitude than the
south of France or Tasmania, which is perhaps the reason that our oils do not
have the same aggressive top note so characteristic of French lavender oil.
They possess a depth, vigour and persistence which is special and distinctive.
Interestingly, the oil of Lavandin ‘Grosso’ (see below), which we grow and
distil, can be compared directly with ‘Grosso’ oil from France because they
are the same variety. The ‘Grosso’ oil that we grow is similarly less sharp
but deeper and more persistent when compared with French ‘Grosso’. In the
end, what is important is what you like and what suits your particular
purpose.
English oil has the reputation for excellence because:
- English growers, who worked somewhat against nature in comparison with
their French colleagues, traditionally took great care in selecting their
plants. Also, their fields were planted with single varieties rather than
seedlings; you only have to look at old photographs to see this. This meant
that for the professional perfumer, English oil was of a much more
reliable standard.
- As with gin, the term ‘English distilled’ denoted purity.
- The higher latitudes already mentioned give more daylight hours in the
summer and less heat at midday, which distils off the more volatile
elements in the oil. Interestingly, lavender grown on the equator by
Mr Cecil Soames at Molo in Kenya, in otherwise ideal conditions, proved
unsatisfactory.
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