![]() When leaves are totally dry, crumble them into bags for storage or use immediately for a variety of purposes including herbal teas, potpourris and cat toy fill. To harvest catnip, cut stems to the ground and hang them upside down to cure in a warm location with good air circulation. ![]() Nepetalactone is the active ingredient that affects most cats. As a garden plant, catnip acts as a repellant for certain insects, including aphids and squash bugs. As a culinary herb, fresh leaves (minty flavor) may be chopped and added to soups, stews, sauces, vegetables, or pasta. As a medicinal herb, catnip leaves have been used (fresh or dried) for making an herbal tea that reportedly helps reduce anxiety, induce sleep, promote perspiration (fever/cold relief), soothe sore throats (cough suppressant) and comfort upset stomachs. Small, two-lipped, white (with pale purple spotting) flowers (1/4" long) bloom in spike-like terminal clusters at the stem ends from late spring well into summer. Leaves (above and particularly beneath) and stems are downy which helps give the plant its gray-green appearance. Erect, branched, square, grayish stems are clad with aromatic, opposite, coarsely-toothed, triangular to ovate, gray-green leaves (to 3" long). Catnip typically grows in a spreading clump to 2-3' tall. In Missouri, it is typically found throughout the State growing in fields, waste areas, open woodlands, railroad right-of-ways, roadsides and along streams (Steyermark). Although native to Europe and Asia, it has over time naturalized in many areas around the world, including much of southern Canada and the U.S. Nepeta cataria is the true catnip that is loved by house cats. ![]()
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