Glycyrrhiza glabra
L. LiquoriceErect rhizomatous subshrub, to 1 m tall; stems scabrous to pubescent. Leaves 8–19 cm long; leaflets 5–17, elliptic, ovate or oblong, mostly 15–40 mm long, 8–20 mm wide, apices obtuse to retuse, sometimes shortly mucronate, margins more or less entire, both surfaces glabrous, upper surface glandular; stipules 1–2 mm long. Racemes usually shorter than subtending leaves; peduncles 3.5–10 cm long, lax; pedicels less than 1 mm long. Flowers many, white to blue-violet; calyx to 6 mm long, glandular hairy, teeth longer than tube; corolla 10–13 mm long; standard oblanceolate, c. 3 mm wide; keel more or less semicircular, acuminate, long-clawed. Pod linear-oblong, 15–30 mm long, 4–6 mm wide, straight, red-brown, glabrous or glandular-setose; seeds 2–6, reniform to subglobular, c. 2 mm long, dark brown. Flowers throughout summer.
Wim, VRiv, MuF, Gold. Also naturalised SA, NSW, America. Native to southern and eastern Europe, doubtfully North Africa and south-east Asia. In Victoria, apparently confined to a few localities in the north where it has escaped from cultivation.
This species is cultivated in the Mediterranean region as a source of liquorice.
Jeanes, J.A. (1996). Fabaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 663–829. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
