UT Gardens' Plant of the Month:

Sesame

Submitted by Terumi Watson

Sesame, or Sesamum indicum, is a tender annual plant grown for its oilseeds. Thomas Jefferson was fond of sesame and planted yearly in his Monticello vegetable garden for making salad oil from the seeds. Sesame is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world, originating in Babylon and Assyria more that 4,000 years ago.

Although sesame is popular in commercial production, it is a beautiful plant to add to your ornamental gardens. The sesame plant will grow up to three to four feet tall with large, textured leaves, and produce attractive white, bell-shaped flowers about an inch long in summer. These flowers resemble foxglove blooms and attract bees and butterflies in the gardens. After booming, seed capsules about 1 to 1.5 inches long will develop on flower stalks.

The seeds ripen in the early fall and need to be harvested when seed capsules are dry on stalks, but before the seed capsules split on the plants. There are several varieties of sesame seeds available; off-white, brown, grey and black. Some of them produce light pink flowers, instead of pure white.

As a high-value food crop, sesame is used as a whole seed in baking and cooking and for the cooking oil extracted from the seed. The dried seeds have a nutty flavor that is enhanced upon roasting.

Viability of sesame seeds is approximately five years after dried and properly stored at room temperature in air-tight containers. Freezing is not recommended for storing sesame seeds because they tend to get damaged in extremely cold temperature.

Sow seeds directly in the ground after the last frost in early spring. Sesame requires long growing seasons, and full sun. Sesame should be planted in a border, protected from severe storms for the plants will not withstand strong wind.

The ideal soil condition is well drained and fertile. Its long root system will eventually improve the soil structure in your garden. Once it is established with adequate soil moisture, sesame is a care-free, drought tolerant plant. Sesame is also a deer resistant plant and great for low-maintenance gardens.

Terumi Watson is a graduate student in the University of Tennessee Department of Plant Sciences. She works under the guidance of Dr. Susan Hamilton, director of the UT Gardens. The UT Gardens are a project of the Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station. The original gardens are located in Knoxville on Neyland Drive. Additional gardens are located in Jackson on Airways Blvd. Admission is free, and the Gardens are open to the public seven days a week during daylight hours.

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Contact:

Patricia C. McDaniels, (865) 974-7141