American Licorice 15+ Seeds

(Glycyrrhiza lepidota). Zones 4 - 9. American Licorice (also known as Sweet Root in some herbals) is a large, pea-like plant up to 2 ½ feet tall, forming large colonies connected by creeping rootstalks. Flowers are white to light cream (occasionally purple tinged) clover like blossoms, which mature into clusters of finely, barbed half-inch long reddish-brown seeds.

Licorice is the only member of the pea family that produces spiny burrs in the Rocky Mountains. American licorice is found in moist open or disturbed areas, stream banks and roadsides.

The roots are best dug in the autumn. The main taproot may be as deep as three to four feet, with numerous thin shallow runners. The roots should be loosely bundled and hung to dry in a shaded area for three weeks. The larger tap roots should be slit before drying. Since the active constituents of American licorice are water soluble, the roots are most often used as tea, rather than tinctured.

Commercial glycyrrhizin is the ammoniated form of glycyrrhzic acid, which tends to intensify other flavors, such as chocolate and maple. Glycyrrhizin, the main constituent of licorice, is more than fifty times sweeter than cane sugar. The powdered licorice root is employed as a natural sweetener in alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, confections, and pharmaceuticals. Licorice is often mixed with anise oil, which has a licorice-like scent, for use as candy or in flavoring of other candies, pastries or baked goods.

Propagation: In early spring or autumn dig the ends of the underground runners that have scale-like leaf buds forming, cutting into 8-inch sections. Plant the starts 4 inches deep in well-watered, well-drained soil. The seeds may be started in individual peat pots after a couple of months of cold storage (refrigerator meat bin) in March or April, and transplanted out after the chance of frost has passed.