Perilla frutescens (L.) Britton

Beefsteak Plant; Wild Basil

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Beefsteak Plant is an introduced annual species in the Mint Family (Lamiaceae). It is native to Asia where it is widely cultivated both as an ornamental and as a food and medicinal plant. In Alabama, it occurs throughout the state. Beefsteak Plant occurs as a weed in gardens and flower beds, in pastures, in disturbed woodlands, around old home sites, and along rivers and creeks. It is an annual with a tap root. It has square stems up to 3 feet in height. The stems are pubescent and often tinted purple. Leaves are opposite, petiolate, ovate-cordate in outline, with serrate margins. The foliage may be green, purple, or reddish. The surface of the leaves are wrinkled. The stems and leaves have a faint musty odor when crushed. The main stem and branches terminate in spike-like racemes of flowers. The two-lipped corolla is pale lavender to white, tubular, and barely exerted from the calyx. The calyx is pubescent with long straight hairs. The fruit is a pair of wrinkled nutlets that develop and mature within the persistent calyx. The dark purple or red leaf forms of Beefsteak Plant have been cultivated in Alabama, and are sometimes called “Wild Coleus”. Fresh leaves of some cultivars can be used in salads, soups and as garnishes. Wild and weedy plants are not recommended for consumption as they may be high in certain toxins. It is responsible for the death of cattle that have grazed on the plant. Beefsteak Plant is sometimes available through nurseries that sell herbs or ones that sell oriental vegetables. It is also available in commercial nurseries as a colorful summer annual. Plants are easily started from seed, and plants will abundantly re-seed themselves. It prefers full sun to partial shade and a moist sandy or organic rich soil.--A. Diamond & B.R. Keener

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Not Native

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