Named in Capitulare de villis
Hyssop
Hyssopus officinalis
What was written
Hyssop is listed in the Capitulare de villis among the plants to be grown on every estate. Its standing in a monastery garden was not only practical: the name appears in the Latin Bible, and a plant named in scripture had a claim on a monastic garden that a purely useful plant did not.
What is now known
The plant scripture names is not certainly this species. Which plant the Hebrew ezov referred to has been argued over for centuries and is still unsettled — an early example of a naming problem that runs through the whole herbal tradition.
The plant itself
A compact evergreen subshrub with narrow leaves and dense spikes of deep blue flowers, strongly attractive to bees and tolerant of thin, chalky soil.
Still growing
Since the plant was written into that garden list, botanists, herbaria and ordinary observers have recorded finding it 20,349 times.
Live count from GBIF, cached for a week.