Vitex

Appearance

"Vitex agnus-castus" is widely cultivated in warm temperate and subtropical regions for its delicate-textured aromatic foliage and butterfly-attracting mid-summer spikes of lavender flowers opening in late summer in cooler climates. It grows to a height of 1–5 m. It requires full sun though tolerating partial shade, along with well-drained soil. Under ideal conditions it is hardy to −23 °C USDA Zone 6, and can be found as far north as the south shore of Long Island and Nantucket on the East Coast of North America and in the mild southwest of England. In colder zones, such as around St. Louis MO, the plant tends to die back to the ground, but as it flowers on new wood, flowering not affected on vigorous growth in the following season. This plant is a brackish water dweller, indicating that it tolerates salt. Cold and wet weather results in dieback and losses. The plant grows well on loamy neutral to alkaline soil.

The monk's pepper fruits from one single tree can be harvested for more than 15 years. This indicates that the monk's pepper cannot be integrated in a usual crop rotation system. It is suggested to sow dissimilar plants such as monocots as its subsequent crop so that it might be easier to control the monk's pepper plant, the dicot. Because the fruits of monk's pepper tend to fall constantly and uncontrollably, it is likely that the plant can germinate from seed. It is said that at a row spacing of 180 cm, the overall best yield per hectare can be achieved if the plant spacing is around 70 cm. Pruning back the branches in autumn has a positive influence on fruit yield while a re-pruning in spring can induce an increase of vegetative shoot and thus to fruit yield loss.

Naming

"Vitex", its name in Pliny the Elder, is derived from the Latin "vieo", meaning to weave or to tie up, a reference to the use of "Vitex agnus-castus" in basketry. Its macaronic specific name repeats "chaste" in both Greek and Latin; the small tree was considered to be sacred to the virginal goddess Hestia/Vesta. The most common names are "chaste tree", "vitex", and "monk's pepper".

Reproduction

This plant can also be reproduced vegetatively. One possibility is to use 5–8 cm long piece of the ripening wood with buds in July or August and another is to cut the ripe wood in November and then let it root in a coldframe. Also "in vitro" reproduction with spike of the shoots or node explants is possible.

Uses

The leaves and tender stem growth of the upper 10 cm, along with the flowers and ripening seeds, are harvested for alternative medicinal purposes. It is believed the berries are a tonic herb for both the male and female reproductive systems. The leaves are believed to have the same effect, but to a lesser degree. The leaves, flowers, and/or berries may be consumed as a decoction, traditional tincture, cider vinegar tincture, syrup, elixir, or simply eaten from the plant with presumed benefits as food. A popular way of taking Vitex is on awakening as a simple 1:1 fluid extract, which is said to interact with hormonal circadian rhythms most effectively.

In ancient times, it was believed to be an anaphrodisiac, hence the name "chaste tree". Pliny, in his "Historia Naturalis", reported the use of stems and leaves of this plant by women as bedding "to cool the heat of lust" during the time of the Thesmophoria, when Athenian women left their husbands to remain ritually chaste. At the end of the 13th century, John Trevisa reported of it "the herbe agnus-castus is always grene, and the flowre therof is namly callyd Agnus Castus, for wyth smel and vse it maketh men chaste as a lombe". Chaucer, in "The Flower and the Leaf," referred to it as an attribute of the chaste Diana, and in the 16th century the English herbalist William Turner reported the same anaphrodisiac properties of the seed, both fried and not fried.