Two farmer’s markets, two plant ID-from-pix sites, a bunch of gardeners…no one knows what this is.
Dogs love it; couldn’t keep a sample fresh enough to offer it to kitties. Crushed leaves smell sweet. Chewed leaves have an asparagus-like aftertaste. The little buds develop into 4 leaves, no flower.
Found adjacent to a garden south of Cadillac Michigan.
Go to reddit and ask on /r/whatisthisthing or /r/whatsthisplant. I can pretty much guarantee an answer.
To me it looks kind of like some kind of basil (which I realize doesn’t narrow it down all that much).
Looks like Vietnamese mint (which doesn’t actually taste minty). I wouldn’t describe the after-taste as asparagus-y but I don’t know what I’d describe it as. It also gets called something like Thai basil here in Australia.
Thai basil was my first reaction but I seem to recall it having a purplish stem. (And it’s delicious in some pho.)
Oh man, it’s 4am and I’d love me some pho right now!
Ahem, back on topic: yeah, the Thai basil I’ve seen usually has purplish bits. But sometimes not. Depends on age, I think. Anyway, whatever it turns out to be, the bigger leaves on the plant in the photo are distinctly basil-ish, I reckon
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Looks like basil to me also. My local market sells potted basil, and we’ve snagged them a couple of times before.
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