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Re: What is Turkestani Oregano?/building Origanum web pages

At 09:01 AM 5/20/98 -0500, William M. Groth wrote:
>Hello Gerry and others on Medit-Plants,
>
>I have actually gotten some feed back which included two different
scientific 
>names for the species (or two different spellings?).  The two I have heard 
>about are Richters has Turkestani Oregano (Origanum tyttanticum) and
>another nursery has an Khirgizstan Oregano which is listed as Origanum
>tyttanthum 
>(Khirgizstan).  The spelling of tyttanticum vs tyttanthum makes me
suspicious 
>and I feel that these may very well be the same species of plant and I don't 
>know which is the proper spelling.  Does anyone know if we are dealing with 
>one or two species of plants?

This thread got my attention as I had plans to compile information about
Origanums for a web page on the Medit-Plants site.  Some initial
inquiries seem to indicate that the plant sold as O. tytanthum (as well as
O. tyttanticum, I assume) are more accurately O. vulgare gracile.  One
of the 'true' culinary Oreganos is O. vulgare hirtum, so I imagine that
other subspecies are also useful in this respect.  There is tremendous
confusion among this group of plants, perhaps because of the similarities,
tendency to hybridize with other species, and the causal manner in which
herbalist and culinary types classify them.  It seems clear that the two
names in question (Turkestani & Khirgizstan), being regional in nature,
indicate from where the plant entered our western trade.  Local people
in those regions no doubt merely refer to them as (their equivalent of)
'oregano', the descriptive term being ours, not theirs.

Some details I currently have regarding O. vulgare gracile are 2ft tall,
pink flowers, mild in flavor, more attractive in form than regular
oregano.  The descriptions put forth on this forum seem to concur with
these.

Anyway, I am in contact with Art Tucker regarding this, and have the
good fortune of some world-class libraries in my local community, some
of which are already assisting me in gathering some information on this
genus.  Apparently Art co-authored many articles with our late Betty
Rollins.  And I have been referred to the revision of this genus by Dr.
Ietswaart (1980) which is what Art & Betty used as the basis of their
identifications.  If anyone out there is growing interesting or unusual
forms of Origanum, perhaps they might send me some photos of these
plants shown to advantage, which I can pair together with the information
being gathered for the web page.  Photos depicting well grown specimens
in good flower, perhaps attractive potted or grouped with companion
plants or handsome hardscape/architecture are especially desired.  All
appropriate acknowledgement will be provided with their inclusion.

BTW - some of the plants used in commercial 'Oregano' mixtures are:
CORIDOTHYMUS CAPITATUS, ORIGANUM HERACLEOTICUM, ORIGANUM VULGARE HIRTUM,
& THYMUS MASTICHINA.



 Sean A. O'Hara                     sean.ohara@ucop.edu
 710 Jean Street                    (510) 987-0577
 Oakland, California 94610-1459     h o r t u l u s   a p t u s
 U.S.A.                             'a garden suited to its purpose'
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