Scientific Name: Tarchonanthus camphorates

Common Name: Sage and Rosemary Tree

Description: Tender, evergreen shrub or small tree; sweetly fragrant, branching shrub with thick, gray-green, downy foliage and stems

Size: Grows into a small tree, 6 feet high, but can be kept as a potted plant indoors or in a sunroom

Cultural Information: Prefers full sun and well-drained soil; drought tolerant

USDA Zones: 10 or higher

Historical Notes: This South African shrub was illustrated in the British nurseryman Robert Furber's famous 1732 Twelve Months of Flowers series of floral bouquets.^[1] Philip Miller of Chelsea Gardens in London further described this plant in his The Gardener's Dictionary, 1754. He noted that it was too tender to grow out-of-doors in England, but "may be placed in a common Green-house with Myrtles, Oleanders, and other hardy Exotic Plants."^[2] The leaves, which have a camphor-like taste, were used medicinally as a decongestant. The wood is heavy and close-grained, and was recommended for musical instruments. During the Victorian Era, this plant disappeared from the literature, and is rarely cultivated today.

- Peggy Cornett, n.d.

Further Sources

• Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants.
• Tucker, Arthur O. "The Sage & Rosemary Tree [PDF]." Magnolia: Bulletin of the Southern Garden History Society 16, no. 1 (2000): 10-11.