Osha Root vs Lovage (Same Family, Different Plant)

Look up osha's common names and "Porter's lovage" sits near the top of the list. If you grow lovage in the herb bed, you might wonder whether that's osha. It isn't. Osha root vs lovage is a comparison of two separate plants from the same family. Garden lovage (Levisticum officinale) is a kitchen herb you can raise from a seed packet. Osha (Ligusticum porteri) is a wild mountain root that grows between 1,500 and 3,500 metres and has never settled into gardens.

Why osha is called Porter's lovage

The species name porteri honours Thomas Conrad Porter (1822 to 1901), a botanist and clergyman who taught botany and zoology at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania from 1866 until 1897. From 1869 to 1875 he collected plants on Ferdinand Hayden's survey of the Rocky Mountain territories. The American Southwest plant guide dates the naming to 1873, and the name botanists use today is Ligusticum porteri Coulter & Rose.

The "lovage" half comes from the genus. Ligusticum is Latin for "of Liguria", the region of northwest Italy where the kitchen herb was grown so widely that it took the place's name. Over the centuries that Latin word drifted to levisticum, then to the French levesche, and English ears turned it into "love-ache" (ache was a medieval word for parsley). Botanists now keep Levisticum for garden lovage and Ligusticum for osha and its relatives, Scots lovage among them.

The shared name is a leftover from Latin. Field guides and the US Fish and Wildlife Service species listing add more names for Ligusticum porteri: Porter's wild lovage, Porter's licorice-root, mountain lovage and loveroot. The Rarámuri of Northern Mexico call it wasía. Mara sells it as Bear Root.

What is lovage?

Garden lovage is a tall perennial with glossy, deeply divided leaves that look like oversized celery or flat-leaf parsley. The Royal Horticultural Society lists it at up to 2 m tall and 1 m wide, from the eastern Mediterranean, and hardy across the UK and northern Europe. NC State Extension rates it for USDA zones 4a to 9b. Charlemagne's Capitulare de villis, written around 800 AD, recommended it for the royal estates.

In the kitchen, The Old Farmer's Almanac describes the taste as a mix of parsley and celery with a mild anise note. Young leaves go into salads and older ones into soups and stews. Blanched stems eat like celery, and the seeds stand in for fennel seed. Dutch cooks pair it with white asparagus, and in Romania it seasons broths and pickles.

It is also easy to grow. Seed goes in the fridge for two weeks, sprouts in 10 to 14 days, and the plant wants 6 to 8 hours of sun. Within a few years a single plant can stand 2 m tall.

Osha root vs lovage, side by side

Both plants belong to Apiaceae, the carrot family, along with parsley, celery and fennel. Both carry flat umbrellas of small flowers: white on osha, yellow-green on lovage. And both smell of celery when you crush them, which is the part that confuses people most.

The smell has a shared source. Both plants make Z-ligustilide (also written cis-ligustilide), a compound with a strong celery-like scent. Dyduch and colleagues measured it at 11.3 to 21.0% of the essential oil from lovage fruits. In osha, Durić and colleagues (2020) found 3.74% ligustilide in the essential oil, and the root itself holds about 0.15 to 2.5% Z-ligustilide.

After that, the two plants part ways:

• Part people use: lovage is grown for its leaves, stems and seeds. Osha is all about the root.
• Where it grows: lovage grows in a sunny garden bed. Osha grows high in the mountains, near the top of the subalpine zone, in partial shade and deep, moist soil.
• Range: lovage is planted around the world. Osha grows wild from the Rocky Mountains south to Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico.
• Taste: a lovage leaf is green and bright, like celery tops. Osha root is earthy and warming with a sharp, celery-like bite.

Can you grow osha in your garden instead?

Gardeners have tried. Attempts to cultivate osha outside its native habitat have not succeeded, and the Pollinator Partnership's osha profile calls cultivation "challenging and not cost efficient". The plant depends on mycorrhizal fungi in the soil and won't tolerate waterlogged ground. It grows slowly, and many plants are over ten years old when they are dug.

Almost all osha on the market is wild-harvested, and United Plant Savers lists it as "At-Risk". In the wild it also looks a lot like poison hemlock, another member of the carrot family, so digging your own is a job for people who know the plant on sight. The lovage in your herb bed will make a good soup. It won't turn into osha.

Bear Root is the mountain root, ready in a dropper

If "Porter's lovage" brought you here because you wanted the mountain root, Bear Root is that root. It is osha, Ligusticum porteri, a mountain plant of Northern Mexico, made into a tincture (an alcohol extract). Simple ingredients: premium quality extract.

Anyone who has crushed a lovage leaf will recognise the family smell, only deeper and rootier. Bear Root tastes earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite from the root.

Take 1 to 2 droppers a day. Hold it under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds and swallow, or stir it into water, tea, juice or a smoothie. People add it to a morning or evening tea, or to a water bottle after a hike or a run, any time of year. A bottle lasts 30 to 50 days at that rate.

The bottle is 50 ml of dark Miron glass. If you're comparing tinctures, dark amber glass is a step in the right direction, and dark Miron glass is the gold standard, because it keeps light off the extract. The extract stays sealed in the bottle, with no root to identify and no lookalike to worry about. For more on what separates one bottle from another, see what to check before you buy an osha root tincture.

Bear Root – Osha Root Tincture

50 ml dropper bottle. Ligusticum porteri from the mountains of Northern Mexico.

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Osha's history runs far older than its Latin name

Long before Porter, osha root was in medicine bundles. One found in Utah is 200 to 600 years old. The Lakota name is mato tapejuta, "bear medicine", and the Diné credit the medicine to the bear. Rarámuri families in Northern Mexico brewed the root as a tea for stomach pain and fever. Observer Shawn Sigstedt watched Kodiak bears chew the root and rub it into their fur, one reason it goes by bear root. You can read the rest of osha's story, from where it grows to how it's harvested, in our complete guide to osha root.

Bear Root considerations

Contains alcohol. Not recommended during pregnancy. If you're nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it.

Questions people ask

Is Porter's lovage the same as lovage?

No. Porter's lovage is osha (Ligusticum porteri), a wild mountain root. Garden lovage is Levisticum officinale, a kitchen herb. They share a family and a celery-like smell.

What is the common name for Ligusticum porteri?

Osha is the most common name. It is also called Porter's lovage, Porter's licorice-root, mountain lovage, loveroot and bear root.

Does osha smell like lovage?

They smell alike because both contain Z-ligustilide, a compound with a celery-like scent. Osha root is earthier and sharper than a lovage leaf.

Can I use garden lovage instead of osha?

They are different plants, so one doesn't stand in for the other. If you want osha itself, Bear Root is Ligusticum porteri from the mountains of Northern Mexico.