Wild Oregano - Origanum vulgare

Scientific Name: Origanum vulgare (Lamiaceae).


English Name: Wild Oregano, Wild Marjoram (Dead-nettle family).


French Name: L'Origan.

5 Key Characters:

• oval, strongly herbal scented leaves.
• purplish rose coloured flowers in dense rounded panicles ('bunches') on the tips of growth.
• individual flowers tube shaped with lips.
• favours calcareous grassland.
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Lookalikes: Pink flowering Calamints Clinopodium spp and Hemp-nettles Galeopsis spp, but they do not have such dense flower panicles.

Habitat: Grassland, scrub, hedgerows, on calcareous soil.


Flowering Period: July-August-September.


Status: Common and locally abundant.


Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

(with Southern White Admiral Limenitis reducta nectaring)

(with White-tailed Bumble Bee Bombus lucorum and Common Blue Polyommatus icarus nectaring)

(with White-tailed Bumble Bee Bombus lucorum and Common Blue Polyommatus icarus nectaring)

(with White-tailed Bumble Bee Bombus lucorum and Common Blue Polyommatus icarus nectaring)