This spicy-smelling bush can reach ten feet and has four-sided twigs and opposite, hand-shaped leaves with 5 to 7 " fingers." The underside of the leaf is thickly covered with grey hairs. The small flowers grow close together at the ends of the twigs and come in a variety of colours: from blue to violet and red, occasionally white. Mediterranean region, Southern Europe, Western Asia . It always grows close to the ground water, on the coast, near rivers and streams.Historical Data
The sharp-tasting fruit was used as a substitute for pepper and was thought to repress the libido, to act as an anaphrodisiac. This explains its names: chaste tree and monk's pepper tree. In some places in Turkey , this plant is still known to have once been a dye plant.
