Fragrant Leaves
Rub a leaf gently and smell your fingers. These plants store scented oils in tiny glands in their leaves, which help keep insects and grazing animals away.
Camphor Tree
कपूरको रूख
Cinnamomum camphora
Crush a leaf and you’ll smell camphor, the same substance burned in worship and used in balms. It is a cousin of the cinnamon tree.
Baby Blue Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus pulverulenta ‘Baby Blue’
Its round, silvery-blue leaves are coated in a powdery wax and full of the aromatic oil that gives eucalyptus its smell. Eucalyptus trees come from Australia.
Anise Hyssop
Agastache foeniculum
Rub a leaf and it smells like licorice, though it’s a member of the mint family. Its leaves make a sweet herbal tea, and bees crowd its purple flower spikes.
Bee Balm
Monarda didyma
Rub a leaf and it smells of citrus and mint; the leaves are brewed into tea. Its shaggy red flower heads bring bees and butterflies, and in North America, hummingbirds.
Vicks Plant
Plectranthus amboinicus
Rub a fleshy, fuzzy leaf and it smells like chest rub, which is how it got its name. It’s also called Mexican thyme, but it comes from Africa and isn’t a thyme.
Lemongrass
Cymbopogon citratus
A grass that smells and tastes of lemon, thanks to citral, the same oil found in lemon peel. Its stalks flavor curries and tea.
More in Looks, Scents, and Surprises
The garden is alive and changes through the year. Some plants flower, fruit, or rest only in certain seasons, so what you see depends on when you visit.
See them for yourself
Every plant here grows on our campus in Bhaktapur. Walk the garden on your visit.
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