In article _0oXi.174399$Da.95462@pd7urf1no, says...

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...


Er, not quite. It seems that the difference is more complicated than
that, and it is unclear whether "Russian" versus "French" tarragon is
different varieties or different growth (as normal ivy versus tree
ivy). Tarragon does vary between tasteless and strongly flavoured,
but the cause of the difference is, I believe, unknown. In particular,
"Russian" tarragon can develop into "French" tarragon after some years
of growth, and "French" tarragon can revert to "Russian" tarragon.
I tried chasing this issue down some years back, and eventually gave
up.


I've been looking (casually) at various reference books including the Oxford
Book of Food Plants and Davidson's Oxford Companion to Food (both of which
are the type of book that one opens to check one thing and find that one is
still reading it an hour later). There appear to be 2 species: Artemisia
dracunculus (French) and A. dracunculoides (Russian). I can see why you
gave up as none of the references is definitive. What is needed is a
botanist/gourmet to sort out the confusion{:-)

.
Graham



The two tarragons are completely different species they look different
taste different and grow differently, so called Russian tarragon is easy
to do from seed, the french is not, as to correct species names, no idea!
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea