What Plant Smells Like Licorice? Six Garden Herbs to Know

The plant that smells like licorice is not one single species. Anise hyssop, sweet cicely, fennel, tarragon, star anise and anise all produce that sweet, slightly spicy fragrance, mostly because they share an aromatic compound called anethole. Its lilac flower spikes give anise hyssop one of the strongest licorice scents of the group, and it grows wild across North American prairies. Star anise, the dried pod used in Chinese five spice, carries the most concentrated version of that scent, while fennel and tarragon offer a milder, more herbal take. None of these plants are related to true licorice, Glycyrrhiza glabra, but their shared chemistry fools the nose into thinking they are.

Which Plants Smell Like Licorice

Six garden plants are the ones people notice most: anise hyssop, sweet cicely, fennel, tarragon, star anise and anise. Each one carries a version of the same sweet, spicy scent, though the strength and the exact chemical source differ from plant to plant. The table below lines them up side by side so a gardener or cook can see which one fits a given use.

Plant	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Scent Strength	Common Use
Anise Hyssop	Agastache foeniculum	Lamiaceae (mint)	Strong in lilac and indigo flowers	Herbal tea, pollinator garden
Sweet Cicely	Myrrhis odorata	Apiaceae (carrot)	Strong, sweet, aniseed	Salads, cooked greens, sugar substitute
Fennel	Foeniculum vulgare	Apiaceae (carrot)	Mild to moderate	Cooking, seeds, bulb vegetable
Tarragon	Artemisia dracunculus	Asteraceae (sunflower)	Mild, more pronounced in French cultivars	Culinary herb, sauces
Star Anise	Illicium verum	Schisandraceae	Very strong	Spice blends, traditional medicine
Anise	Pimpinella anisum	Apiaceae (carrot)	Strong, sweet	Baking, liqueurs, seed spice

Fresh, crushed leaves bring out the strongest scent in anise hyssop and sweet cicely. Star anise and anise concentrate their scent in the dried seed pods and seeds rather than the foliage, which is why cooks reach for those two when a recipe calls for a true licorice punch.

Anise Hyssop Has One of the Strongest Licorice Scents in the Garden

Agastache foeniculum, commonly called anise hyssop, smells distinctly of licorice because its leaves taste of aniseed and release that fragrance the moment they are bruised. The plant is native to North American prairies and belongs to the mint family. It grows 80 to 100 centimeters tall, or roughly 31 to 39 inches, and produces dense flower spikes that bloom from June through September.

Not every flower color on this plant carries the same aroma. Lilac and indigo varieties give off the classic licorice scent, while pink and orange cultivars lean fruity instead. Bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects are drawn to the flower spikes, and birds feed on the seeds left in the dried heads once the blooms fade.

The leaves are edible and safe around pets and children, and gardeners often dry them for an aniseed-flavored herbal tea. Despite the common name, anise hyssop plays no role in making actual licorice candy or extract.

Sweet Cicely Smells Like Fennel, Licorice and Star Anise at Once

Sweet cicely, Myrrhis odorata, earns a reputation for smelling like three licorice-adjacent plants rolled into one. Country Life describes the scent as “a gorgeous coming together of fennel, liquorice and star anise,” and that blended quality is what sets the plant apart from a single-note herb like tarragon. It is also known as garden myrrh or fern-leaved chervil.

Every part of sweet cicely carries the fragrance: the fern-like leaves, the roots, the flowers, and the seeds. The aroma is most pronounced when the leaves are picked young and crushed.

Gardening Know How notes that the sweetness comes from anethole, the same compound found in true licorice, and that this compound is actually sweeter than table sugar. Cooks have used sweet cicely leaves in salads and cooked them like spinach, treated the stalks like celery, and boiled or eaten the roots raw.

Herbalists once relied on it for stomachaches and coughs, and it still serves as a zero-calorie sweetener in some kitchens. The plant blooms early in the season, feeds bees and other beneficial insects, and keeps its fragrance even after drying.

Fennel Carries a Milder Licorice Note in Its Leaves and Seeds

Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, has what North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox calls a sweet, mildly anise or licorice flavor in both its flowers and its feathery leaves. That milder profile is what separates fennel from a plant like star anise, which delivers a much more concentrated version of the same scent. Fennel belongs to the carrot family, Apiaceae, and originated in the Mediterranean and southern Europe.

A home gardener can expect fennel to reach 3 to 5 feet tall with a spread of about 1.5 to 3.25 feet. It grows best in full sun, needs at least six hours of direct light a day, and tolerates clay, sand, and loam as long as the soil stays moist and well drained.

Established plants handle short dry spells without much trouble, and the species survives across a wide range, from USDA hardiness zone 4a through 9b. The feathery, aromatic foliage also serves as a host plant for swallowtail butterfly caterpillars, so a fennel patch does double duty as a pollinator draw.

Tarragon Has a Lighter Licorice Character That Depends on the Variety

Tarragon smells like licorice mainly in its cultivated French form, since the wild species has little fragrance at all. North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox describes the wild plant, Artemisia dracunculus, as having minimal scent and a flavor that can be bland or unpleasant, while the French cultivar known as ‘Sativa’ offers a noticeably more pungent, anise-like flavor.

Botanically, this herb sits in the sunflower family, Asteraceae, and grows as an herbaceous perennial with erect stems, slender branches, and narrow leaves. Plants reach 1 to 3 feet tall and 1 to 1.5 feet wide. It needs full sun, well-drained and pH-neutral soil, and tolerates loam, sand, or soil rich in organic matter.

Once established, tarragon shrugs off both drought and heat, and it is hardy across USDA zones 3a through 8b. Because it spreads by rhizomatous roots and self-seeds readily, tarragon can look weedy in a formal border even though it stays tidy in a dedicated herb bed or container.

Star Anise Delivers the Strongest Licorice Scent of the Group

Star anise, Illicium verum, produces the most concentrated licorice aroma of any plant on this list because its oil is more than 80 percent trans-anethole, the same compound that gives true licorice its smell. The tree itself grows 10 to 15 meters tall and belongs to the Schisandraceae family, though older references classify it under Magnoliaceae. Its genus name comes from a Latin word meaning “to allure,” a nod to how strongly the dried, star-shaped fruit announces itself.

Each pod typically holds eight seed-bearing sections, and China supplies roughly 80 percent of the world’s star anise, with Guangxi province alone responsible for more than 90 percent of that national output.

Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and small pockets of North America grow it as well. Researchers have catalogued 201 distinct compounds in the plant, including shikimic acid, the starting ingredient for the flu medication Tamiflu, along with flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, terpenoids, and lignans.

Traditional Chinese medicine texts have documented star anise since the Ming Dynasty, prizing it for warming and pain-relieving properties, and it still appears in more than 44 patent medicines aimed at respiratory, digestive, and musculoskeletal complaints. Laboratory studies also point to antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral activity, including some effect against influenza.

Anise Smells Like Licorice but Is Unrelated to Star Anise

Anise, Pimpinella anisum, smells sweet and highly fragrant with a taste that North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox describes as similar to licorice, and the seeds are the part responsible for most of that scent. Despite the name overlap, anise and star anise come from entirely different plant families: anise sits in Apiaceae, the carrot family, while star anise belongs to Schisandraceae. They only share a fragrance because both happen to produce anethole.

As a garden plant, anise grows upright as an annual, needs full sun, and tolerates poor soil better than many culinary herbs. Gardeners in a range of climates, from coastal areas to mountain regions, can raise it from seed. White flowers appear in summer and give way to brown, copper, or golden-yellow fruit.

Both the leaves and seeds are edible, and the extracted oils turn up in perfumes and soaps as well as in kitchens, where crushed seeds season baked goods, cheeses, and fruit dishes. Bakers and distillers favor anise seed for exactly the reason gardeners plant anise hyssop and sweet cicely: it delivers licorice flavor without needing the true licorice root at all.

Anethole Is the Chemical Reason so Many Unrelated Plants Smell Alike

Anethole is the aromatic compound responsible for the shared licorice scent across anise, fennel, star anise, sweet cicely, and true licorice, even though none of these plants are closely related botanically. Chemically, it is classified as an ether, and its structure is what the nose reads as sweet, warm, and faintly spicy rather than sharp or bitter. Star anise oil is especially rich in the compound, at more than 80 percent trans-anethole, which explains why a single dried pod can scent an entire kitchen.

Convergent chemistry, not shared ancestry, explains why a mint-family plant like anise hyssop, a carrot-family plant like fennel, and a tree in the Schisandraceae family like star anise all smell related. Each species evolved its own version of anethole production independently, likely because the compound helps repel pests or attract specific pollinators. A gardener who wants a reliable licorice scent does not need to hunt for relatives of the licorice plant; any of these unrelated species will do the job.

How to Grow a Licorice-Scented Herb at Home

Fennel, tarragon, and anise are the three plants in this group with well-documented home-garden requirements, and all three want full sun and at least six hours of direct light. The table below lays out what each one needs so a gardener can pick the right spot before planting.

Plant	Light	Soil	Mature Height	USDA Hardiness Zone
Fennel	Full sun	Moist, organically rich, well drained; tolerates clay, sand, loam	3 to 5 feet	4a to 9b
Tarragon	Full sun	Well drained, pH neutral; tolerates loam, sand, organic-rich soil	1 to 3 feet	3a to 8b
Anise	Full sun	Tolerates poor soil	Under 3 feet, upright annual	Grown as a warm-season annual

Anise hyssop and sweet cicely are not included in this table because their growing needs were not independently verified for this article, though both are commonly grown as perennials in temperate gardens.

1. A gardener starting from seed should sow fennel, tarragon, or anise in spring after the last frost, since all three prefer to establish in warm soil.
2. Once tarragon is planted, gardeners typically propagate it by root division rather than seed, since the flavorful French cultivar rarely produces viable seed of its own.

The cheapest sticker is often not the cheapest over three years. That is my view, and it makes lilac or indigo anise hyssop the sensible splurge for a garden seeking real licorice scent: it flowers from June through September and draws pollinators, while fennel’s useful foliage and seeds do not make up for its milder aroma. Pink and orange forms are a poor bargain here, unless fruit notes are somehow the assignment.

This guide has not included seed suppliers, plant availability or prices.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Plant That Smells Like Licorice the Same as the Licorice Plant?

No. True licorice comes from the root of Glycyrrhiza glabra, a legume unrelated to anise hyssop, fennel, tarragon, star anise, or anise. These plants only smell alike because several of them produce the same aromatic compound, anethole, independently of one another.

Which Plant Smells Most Strongly of Licorice?

Star anise produces the strongest, most concentrated licorice scent of the group, since its oil runs more than 80 percent trans-anethole. Anise hyssop and sweet cicely come next, with a noticeably strong fragrance in fresh leaves and flowers, while fennel and tarragon offer a milder version.

Can I Use Anise Hyssop Leaves in Tea?

Yes. Anise hyssop leaves are edible and commonly dried for an aniseed-flavored herbal tea. The plant is also considered safe around pets and children, which makes it a popular choice for family gardens.

Does Tarragon Always Smell Like Licorice?

Not always. Wild tarragon has little fragrance and can taste bland or unpleasant, while the cultivated French variety, often sold as ‘Sativa’, carries a noticeably more pungent, anise-like scent and flavor. Gardeners who want the licorice character should look specifically for French tarragon rather than the Russian type.

Are Anise and Star Anise the Same Plant?

No, and this is one of the most common mix-ups among these licorice-scented species. Anise, Pimpinella anisum, is a small annual herb in the carrot family, while star anise, Illicium verum, is a tree in the Schisandraceae family that produces a star-shaped dried fruit. They share a similar scent only because both plants produce anethole.

Anyone chasing that unmistakable licorice smell has several reliable options, from a pot of anise hyssop on a sunny windowsill to a few pods of star anise in the spice cabinet. Fennel and tarragon reward patience with a milder version of the same fragrance, while sweet cicely offers the most complex blend of the bunch. Whichever plant ends up in the garden or the kitchen, the chemistry behind the scent is the same compound working across several unrelated species.

References

• Anise Hyssop, Plants and Flowers Foundation Holland
• Sweet Cicely: A delightful plant with a scent that’s “a gorgeous coming together of fennel, liquorice and star anise”, Country Life
• Sweet Cicely Herb Uses: How To Grow Sweet Cicely Plants, Gardening Know How
• A Comprehensive Review of the Pharmacology, Chemistry, Traditional Uses and Quality Control of Star Anise (Illicium verum Hook. F.): An Aromatic Medicinal Plant, PubMed Central/NIH
• Foeniculum vulgare (Bronze Fennel, Fennel, Finocchio, Florence Fennel, Sweet Fennel), North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox
• Artemisia dracunculus (Dragon Plant, Dragon Sagewort, Estragon, Herbaceous Sagewort, Pinon Wormwood, Silky Wormwood, Tarragon, Wild Tarragon), North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox
• Pimpinella anisum (Anise, Aniseed), North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox

Sources read in September 2026.