This is the European plant that produces liquorice, and is used commercially for sweets, baking, ice cream and drinks, and in some medicines. The Egyptians used this plant for its healing properties and is one of the most widely used in Western Herbal Medicine. The roots are harvested at the 3-4 year stage from seed and boiled to extract the liquorice. Best grown under glass for the first winter planting out the following spring after frosts have finished. The plants (a member of the pea and bean family) require a deep loamy soil with roots that can reach 1.2 metres in length!
