Cultivated Marjoram, called also Sweet or Knotted Marjoram (Majorana hortensis)

Perennial, but usually considered annual because of its fear of frost. Easily grown from seeds and may be cultivated in pots. Its confusion with oregano or the various oreganos (wild marjorams) in literature is extremely frustrating and, in Provence, the oregano that grows wild on the hillsides is called marjolaine, its correct name, origan, being generally unknown and la marjolaine vraie being equally unknown although another variety of oregano is often called marjolaine cultivée . . . Most books, French or English, claim that cultivated marjoram is widely used in Provence, but I have never encountered anyone from the region who was familiar with the herb. Its appearance—the tiny shovel-shaped velvety blue-green leaves and the miniature white flowers half lost in the shell-like geometric construction of surrounding leaves—is totally unlike that of oregano, as is its heavenly fragrance. Many authors pretend that its perfume is akin to that of thyme and that the two herbs are interchangeable—they who claim that have never tasted the herb. The commercialized versions are not even parodies of the real thing, no memory of the original perfume remaining.