Lemon balm
Melissa officinalis L.
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Little
- tall
- 53 cm
- wide
- 69 cm
Lamiaceae
Also called Balm
Formerly Faucibarba officinalis, Mutelia officinalis, Thymus melissa
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- PerennialKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Medit. to C. AsiaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 46 cm to 61 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 46 cm to 91 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Little: takes droughtRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- Cream, yellowRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -40 °C (USDA zone 3a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Spanish
- balsamita mayor, Limoncillo, Toronjil
- root
- MELOF1, abichera, Abeyeira
- Portuguese
- Erva-cidreira
- French
- Mélisse officinale, Mélisse citronelle, mélisse
- Hebrew
- מליסה רפואית
- German
- Zitronenmelisse, Zitronen-Melisse
- Czech
- meduňka lékařská
- Norwegian Bokmål
- sitronmelisse
- Dutch
- Citroenmelisse, citroenmelisse
- Russian
- Мелисса лекарственная
- Finnish
- sitruunamelissa
- Italian
- Melissa vera
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 4.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- 3D model: Melissa officinalis (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.