Nasturtium
Tropaeolum majus L.
Botanical family: Tropaeolaceae
A climbing or trailing annual native to the Andes (Tropaeolum majus, Tropaeolaceae), nasturtium offers edible flowers and leaves with a pungent taste. It thrives in poor soil and sun: too rich a soil gives foliage at the expense of flowers. Very attractive to aphids, it often serves as a trap plant, to be watched, to draw them away from neighbouring crops.
Full sun
Poor, well-drained
Moderate
Annual
Role in permaculture
A trap plant: preferentially attracts aphids and feeds hoverflies, ladybirds, and lacewings.
Good companions
Cover the soil (moisture, fewer weeds)
Traditional companion planting (benefit not demonstrated)
Insects attracted or useful
Known pests & diseases
Pests and diseases that commonly affect this plant, tap to learn how to recognise and manage them.
Seasons & availability
Sown in place from April to May, after the last frosts; it flowers from June until the first frosts, and that is when flowers and young leaves are picked fresh.
Available: June, July, August, September, October.
Guidance for the oceanic / temperate climate; it may vary with your region, altitude, exposure and growing method.
Sources
- Plants For A Future, « Tropaeolum majus » (pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Tropaeolum+majus)
- Gerbeaud, « Capucine, une fleur facile » (gerbeaud.com/jardin/fiches/capucine.php)
Nutritional & medicinal properties
For educational purposes. Not a substitute for medical advice. Effects depend on the form, the dose and personal context.
Precautions & contraindications
Mainly food and horticultural use.
In the kitchen & the apothecary
Where to find nasturtium in preparations: recipes and traditional herbal teas.
Species & varieties
The best-known species and varieties in France.
Common varieties
Voices of peoples
Paraphrases attributed to their documented sources. Never an invented quote.
Carl Linnaeus (scientific nomenclature) and European folk tradition · Europe, 16th–18th centuries; a plant native to the Andes
Come from the Andes, the nasturtium receives in Europe two names carrying two imaginaries. According to the sources, its French name is said to come from its spurred flower, likened to the hood (cappuccio) of the Capuchin friars, a usage already attested in Tournefort in 1694, even before Linnaeus. The latter names it Tropaeolum, 'little trophy': in its round, peltate leaves he saw shields, the best-established image, while the likening of its flowers to helmets remains the most uncertain part of this martial reading. The whole evokes the Roman tropaeum, that trunk on which the arms of the defeated enemy were hung. Two images for a single plant, one monastic, the other martial.
Carl von Linné, Species Plantarum (1753), genre Tropaeolum ; nom « capucine/capuchon » attesté dès Tournefort (1694) et repris par les dictionnaires (Wikipedia, Tropaeolum majus, section « nom »).
A documented etymology that belongs to nominal interpretation, not to a people's tale: the sources present these two origins as hypotheses that coexist, rather than as two certainties to be combined. The image of the shield-leaves (peltate leaves) is solidly attested; that of the 'helmet-flowers' much less so and is put forward only with caution. No health claim here, and nothing that essentialises a tradition, it's a learned and popular reading of the names, not a ritual saying attributed to a people.
Keep in mind
Nasturtium is a trap plant of gardening tradition, little studied: it demands active management: without intervention (mowing, cutting back infested plants) or without a sufficient density of helpers, it becomes a hub that amplifies aphid populations and spreads them to neighbouring crops.
A note on rigour: many companion pairings are gardening folklore; this note sums up what the sources say, where there are any.
Key takeaways
- • Prefers full sun exposure.
- • Ideal soil: poor, well-drained.
- • Classic companion: Courgette (zucchini).