Shiso

Perilla frutescens

Lamiaceae

The ruffled mint of Japanese and Korean kitchens — cumin-basil-citrus in a leaf that pickles plums and wraps rice.

Culinary leaf. Perilla oil is a food oil in East Asia; wild American perilla can confuse foragers with lookalikes.

Parts used: Leaf · Flowering tops · Seed in Korean cooking
Traditional notes: Kitchen wrap and pickle · After a rich fish plate · Traditional summer green
Grow · USDA 6b: Warm-season annual. Self-sows in USDA 5–10. After frost, or start indoors. Seed wants light. In work: May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep
Harvest: Leaves anytime; pinch before it flowers if you want leaf.

One plant is a garnish. Six is a thicket.
Red and green are the same species in different clothes.

Safety

Mint-family allergy

Lore

The Japanese name is Chinese in origin — zǐsū, purple perilla. Korean kkaennip is the sesame-leaf cousin in the same genus. Umeboshi is red because of this leaf, not because of the plum. A 16th-century Japanese pharmacopeia already treats it as both food and medicine, which is the honest dual citizenship of a kitchen mint.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.