What plant is perilla? Let's get to know this herbaceous plant

Other names for perilla

Perilla is an annual herbaceous plant in the Lamiaceae family. Its other names include guiren, white perilla, red perilla, red perilla, black perilla, white perilla, green perilla, suma, shuishengma, and more.

Morphological characteristics of perilla

Perilla is an annual upright herbaceous plant. The stem height is 0.3-2 m, green or purple, bluntly four-angled, and the stem is covered with long hairs.

The leaves are broadly ovate or round, 7-13 cm long and 4.5-10 cm wide. The leaf tip is shortly pointed or abruptly pointed, the base is rounded or broadly wedge-shaped, and the margin has coarse serrations. The leaf color is green or purple, or only the underside is purple. The upper surface of the leaf has sparse hairs, and the underside has appressed hairs.

The verticillasters have 2 flowers, forming terminal and axillary racemes 1.5-15 cm long, densely covered with long soft hairs, and; the bracts are broadly ovate or nearly round, about 4 mm long and wide, with a short pointed tip, covered outside with reddish-brown glandular dots, hairless, and with a membranous margin; the pedicels are 1.5 mm long and densely covered with soft hairs.

The nutlets are spherical, grayish-brown, about 1.5 mm in diameter, with a reticulate pattern on the surface. Perilla blooms from August to November and fruits from August to December.

Growth characteristics of perilla

Perilla has strong adaptability and does not demand much from the environment. It generally grows on well-drained, fertile sandy loam, loam, and clay loam, in front of and behind houses, and along ditches and field edges.