John Gerard, The Herbal, or General History of Plants, 1597. As a preface to this essay, I’ll save you the trouble of looking up “merry-galls” and tell you that they are sores which you might ...

The lovely lavender flowers of the chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus), a shrub native to the Mediterranean, produce small, dark fruits (berries) resembling peppercorns. Ancient European herbalists ...

Miracle Cure Monk’s Pepper? For those struggling to conceive, preparations made from the plant Agnus castus are said to help. Additionally, monk’s pepper is believed to alleviate menstrual discomfort.

Summer is the time hazy purplish clouds of eye-popping blooms blanket the chaste tree, Redlands’ the tree of the month for August. Also commonly known as chaste berry, monk’s pepper or Indian spice, ...

A large chaste tree grows just outside my window in the Brunswick County Botanical Garden. Since I started 4 years ago, it has reliably provided a show stopping display of purple flowers each summer ...

Chaste tree (vitex agnus-castus) has been putting on a show for several weeks. When the plant is covered with flowers, it's a real eye-catcher and generates a lot of interest. Chaste tree is native to ...

Chaste tree is one of very few large, woody shrubs from the Mediterranean region that thrive in Central Florida. A deciduous species up to 20 feet tall if left unpruned, chaste tree (Vitex ...