What’s the herb that spells summer time? Basil, scattered throughout ripe tomatoes, or in pesto? Cilantro, chopped into guacamole? Or is it American burnweed, pulsed with mango right into a dressing for a spicy salad? “American…what?” you would possibly ask. It’s a North American herb whose fragrant leaves are prepared to reap within the sultriest days of July and August. Its aroma is as pungent as cilantro, however extra perfumed, like shiso, with the charisma of epazote and the punch of culantro (with some Thai lime pores and skin thrown in). In brief: It’s wow. Additionally just about unknown as a culinary herb within the kitchens of its native vary.
Images by Marie Viljoen.

In Central Park’s North Woods, within the sticky summer time of 2014, I met this unfamiliar plant for the primary time. Flanked by the flowers and first, inexperienced berries of pokeweed (a misunderstood native edible), its herbaceous stem, surrounded by good-looking leaves, grew virtually 4 ft tall within the dappled shade. Its stature jogged my memory of untamed lettuce, however the intense scent launched by a crushed leaf was distinctly un-lettuce-like. My cooking instincts started to ping wildly. What was it? I took footage, and picked up some leaves. My American burnweed journey had simply begun.

Botanically, American burnweed is Erechtites hieraciifolius, and there are not less than two varieties. It’s an indigenous annual and a member of the Asteraceae household. Its widespread identify alludes to its affiliation with areas of forest that had been cleared by burning. Different widespread names embrace fireweed (to not be confused with the pink-flowered species of Epilobium, additionally edible), and pilewort. Wort is a suffix usually hooked up to vegetation related to a medicinal use, and the pile, properly, that claims all. That etymology is attention-grabbing, as a result of it seems that American burnweed is utilized in some components of the world to deal with hemorrhagic complaints.

My preliminary searches for this fragrant herb’s conventional American culinary makes use of got here up near empty. Rumour. Hypothesis. Little or no private expertise. There have been dismissive feedback about its “rank odor,” adopted by downright rudeness, like: “Very unattractive in look, and ill-scented moreover.” That was R. M. Harper, writing a 1944 report on weeds in Alabama. Native Individuals used American burnweed medicinally, treating poison ivy rash, amongst different illnesses, and it has been equally helpful in Central and South America. In Japan E. hieraciifolius has been discovered to be environment friendly at assimilating atmospheric nitrogen dioxide, making it a possible botanical “brick” in dwelling inexperienced partitions planted close to buildings or flanking highways to sequester pollution from automotive emissions or different industrial sources.*
* The Biology of Canadian Weeds, Canadian Journal of Plant ScienceVolume 92, Quantity 4, July 2012

In the end, in my hunt for dinner, I reached the digital shores of Indonesia and Malaysia, the place this American weed, together with its tropical counterpart, Erechtites valerianifolius, has loved a stable culinary custom in addition to some critical examine, which reveals excessive vitamin A, protein, and zinc ranges. It was that geographic culinary affiliation, and burnweed’s sturdy relatability (not less than to my palate) to annual herbs like basil and mint, that guided my first kitchen video games.
