Is Culinary Perilla the Same as Perilla? A Detailed Guide to Its Morphology and Growing Environment

When people mention Culinary Perilla, they think of the poetic line “the spring breeze brings warmth and with it Culinary Perilla wine”, and also of the character “Baili Tusu” played by Li Yifeng, but few have ever heard of the Culinary Perilla herb. So is Culinary Perilla the same as perilla? What does it look like? Where does it grow? According to Xiao Gong, who has sold vegetables for many years at the Hongxing Agricultural and Sideline Products Market in Changsha, Hunan, Culinary Perilla is in fact what we now call perilla, only that the name Culinary Perilla is rarely used anymore.

1. What does Culinary Perilla look like?

Perilla is an annual upright herbaceous plant. The stem is 0.3-2 m tall, green or purple, obtusely four-angled, with four grooves, densely covered with long soft hairs.

Perilla has a distinctive aroma. The leaves are mostly shrunken and curled; when flattened, a complete leaf is ovate, 4 to 11 cm long and 2.5 to 9 cm wide, with a long-tapered or acute tip, a rounded or broadly wedge-shaped base, and round-toothed margins. Both surfaces are purple, or the upper surface is green, and the lower surface bears numerous sunken dot-like glandular scales. The petiole is 2 to 5 cm long, purple or purple-green, and brittle.

The young branches are purple-green, with pith in the center of the cross-section, a fresh fragrance, and a slightly pungent taste.

2. The growing habits of Culinary Perilla

Perilla is propagated by seed, either by direct sowing or by raising seedlings and transplanting.

Perilla is highly adaptable and not demanding about soil. It grows well in well-drained sandy loam, loam, and clay loam, and when cultivated in fertile soil in front of and behind houses and along ditches and field edges. A preceding crop of vegetables is preferable. It can be planted under young fruit tree groves.