Sweet woodruff
Galium odoratum
A shade groundcover that smells of new-mown hay (coumarin) when dried. Traditional May wine flavoring. Fresh plant is less aromatic until wilted/dried.
GROW → HARVEST → EAT → DRY → POWDER → CAPSULE → GUMMY — forms are not equivalent. Food first.
Identity
What it is
A shade groundcover that smells of new-mown hay (coumarin) when dried. Traditional May wine flavoring. Fresh plant is less aromatic until wilted/dried.
From the existing encyclopedia
Home cooks and herbal tea drinkers know Woodruff for its signature scent and the way it layers with citrus, honey, or allium. Buy food-grade quality from suppliers who publish lot and origin; avoid mystery bulk without COA for sensitive items. Works alongside green tea or ginger in everyday beverage rotation. When substituting dried Woodruff for fresh, use about one-third the volume and bloom in fat or hot water before adding acid or dairy.
Edible portions
- dried aerial parts as an aroma in drinks — small amounts
Absence of a portion from this list means it is not treated as food here — not that every other part is toxic.
Growing
- Climate. 4–8 shade
- Light. Shade
- Soil. Moist, humus
- Planting. Spreads into a carpet under trees.
- Harvest. Cut leafy stems and dry to develop the hay scent.
Processing, drying, storage
- Drying. Dry until the hay scent appears. See also Make → Drying.
Preparation and culinary uses
- Traditional May wine — a few sprigs, then remove
Nutrition and compounds
- Plant compounds. coumarin. Presence is not a dose, a cure, or a reason to buy a capsule.
AAA interpretation Food first. These associations explain why a plant shows up in a nutrient conversation — they are not a supplement shopping list.
Safety
- Aroma herb in small traditional amounts. Not a coumarin supplement. Dried is the culinary form.
Next steps
Sources
- USDA PLANTS Database — taxonomy and range (verify current entries)
- USDA FoodData Central — nutrient profiles for foods (verify current entries; this page does not invent milligrams)
- State cooperative extension growing guides — verify for your region
- Integrated from the existing aaaLifetime / quantum-biohack encyclopedia corpus (unique text preserved where it was not boilerplate).
Honest incompleteness is preferred to fabricated completeness. If a section is missing, no record for it is attached here — not a claim that the plant lacks that characteristic, and not that it was omitted as a secret.
Internal quality class A. Strong page: distinctive plant facts plus practical growing or kitchen use.