Syrian oregano

Wild za’atar from the mountain slopes is the basis of a blend with sesame and sumac that Syrians eat for breakfast with bread and olive oil.

An aromatic perennial of the mint family with a woody base and upright stems growing to 1 m. Its grey-green leaves are densely covered in soft hairs. In summer compact clusters of small white flowers appear at the tips of the stems. The plant grows on dry, rocky slopes in the eastern Mediterranean, and its leaves contain an oil rich in carvacrol and thymol, with a flavour somewhere between thyme and oregano.

Significance in the country

The za’atar blend – dried, crushed leaves with toasted sesame, sumac and salt – is an everyday treat in Syria: bread with olive oil is dipped in it, or it is baked onto man’oushe flatbreads. Za’atar halabi from Aleppo is especially renowned.

Where it grows

Wild on the rocky slopes of the coastal mountains (Latakia, Tartus), around Aleppo and Idlib and on the slopes of the Anti-Lebanon and Mount Hermon; increasingly cultivated in fields.

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