#common hop

[lindamarieansonsnaps]

[mothmiso]

vicino casa / near home (2) by Gianluca Iocolano

Via Flickr:

(1) luppolo / common hop     

[rosemary-ghoul]

Common Hop

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[regnum-plantae]

Humulus lupulus, Cannabaceae

Common hop is one of the most typical native climbing plants growing in wild hedgerows around my hometown in northern Italy. I love to rub the resinous female flower cones -known as hops- between my fingers when I walk past one of these plants, and smell the savoury aromatic oils, which are very persistent!

These oils are what make this plant an important crop for the brewing industry, as they are essential to give most beers the flavour we are used to. In certain parts of nothern Italy the young shoots are cooked and eaten pretty much like asparagus. I’ve never tried them, but I’ve heard from people around my grandparents’ age that they were popular when they were kids.  

The cultivar ‘Aureus’, with yellow or bright green leaves, is cultivated as an ornamental in the UK. 

[me-lapislazuli]

Common hop / Humulus lupulus by stoplamek on Flickr.

[northwestnaturalist]

Humulus lupulus “Common Hop” Cannabaceae

Missoula, MT September 12, 2015 Robert Niese

The Common Hop grows particularly well in the PNW and Washington state alone produces nearly a quarter of the world’s hops. Humulus is a member of a rather odd family of flowering plants, the Cannabaceae, which tend to have drab flowers (often unisexual) that lack petals and rely on wind for pollination. In the Common Hop specifically, the structure that is utilized for beer production (the hop) is actually a modified inflorescence of female flowers hiding beneath leaf-like scales called bracts. Beneath each of those bracts, the female flowers produce a the diversity of compounds which, through selective breeding efforts across the centuries, impart bitterness and complex aromas to the beer.

[dendroica]

Hops: Humulus lupulus by Provincial Archives of Alberta on Flickr.

From the William Copeland McCalla family fonds, PR1982.0325/40.

This species is one of the main ingredients for brewing beer.

[ghettopalm]

Small TOH saplings sprouting just in front of old Chisinau houses. The Common hop used in beer-making forgiving it the bitter taste, is a climbing perennial herbaceous plant related to the Cannabaceae family. It escapes cultivation easily and it grows on top of fences. It has a potent antibacterial activity and also contains a potent phytoestrogen that may bind to the estrogen receptors. It is dioecious (Greek for "two houses") as the TOH tree - with female and male variants of the plant.