Back to School Special: Why Kids and Bugs Love Fennel

One thing the school garden is not short of: fennel.  Dill's sweeter twin, the kids love it.  Kids who enjoy the taste of black licorice, that is.  I'm sure if I could create an herb that tasted like Nibs, it's popularity may surpass fennel's with the school-age set.
 
When I took on the school garden challenge, one of the first things I thought was, "better pull out some of this fennel."  Fennel has a tendency to take over the garden, making itself a tasty little nuisance.  But I have yet to have a day in the school garden when a student did not come up to me, proudly identify the plant to me, pick off a feathery leaf, and pop it into the mouth like candy.

The fennel stayed.

Stayed for most of the school year, that is.  The other day, just a few days before school's start, I was in the garden, giving it a little water and weed to spruce it up for the returning staff and students.  The fennel was prolific, and proudly blooming its umbel flower heads.  There was enough fennel for a fennel feast, and who was taking advantage of this feast but the wasps.  At least ten wasps per flower head, I began to get nervous about the impending return of the students and potential stings, and worse, allergic reactions.

So I pulled out a lot of the fennel.  Don't worry, enough fennel remains to satisfy snacking students and to make more plants in the future.  But why are so many of mother earths' creatures fascinated by fennel?

People and Fennel 

-Botanical name: Foeniculum vulgare
-Fennel is in the same plant family as carrots (Apiaceae) 
-Mediterranean in origin, fennel is grown around the world and is found in many tradition ethnic dishes: from Greek plates, to English, to Indian (aka "cumin"), fennel has been flavoring deserts, fish dishes, medicines and teas for millennia.
-Fennel is medicinal: Used as a digestive aid (particularly helpful with flatulence), snake bite remedy, eye wash; has anti-microbial properties (nature's hand sanitizer), and is used to promote lactation in nursing mothers.
-Great help in the garden: attracts beneficial insects, butterflies (see Bugs and Fennel below)


Bugs and Fennel

-Every one's favorite beetle, the Ladybug, loves loves loves fennel (most of them, anyway)!  Adults use it as a place to eat pollen and nectar, and often lay their eggs on them.  Ladybug larvae are voracious aphid eaters (adults eat aphids, but not as much as the larvae).
-Syrphid flies (aka Hover Flies) look like tiny wasps but are harmless; indeed they are beneficial for the garden.  Once again, their babies eat aphids and other sap-sucking plant pests, while the adults assist in pollination.  You may see one hovering (of course) around a fennel umbel, having a nectar moment.
-Wasps also love to eat fennel, and despite the fear they inflict in most of us, they too, can eat garden-pests.
-Swallowtail butterflies: the caterpillars love fennel and the butterflies often lay their eggs on the plant.

Anise Swallowtail Caterpillar on Fennel

Anise Swallowtail Butterfly

Who doesn't like fennel?  Other plants!  In a companion planted garden, fennel is friendless (save for dill).  But it does so much other good, save a place for fennel in our gardens and in our hearts!