Giant Hyssop

Agastache foeniculum

Bird foodPollinator plant

Growing it

When	Flowers July to September
Type	wildflower
Sun	Full sun, partial shade
Water	Low
Soil	pH 6–7.5
Hardiness	zone 3–7
Mature height	0.8 m
Mature spread	0.45 m
Spacing	0.3 m
Years to maturity	2
Bloom	Jul–Sep
Flower colour	Blue read from a published flora
In bloom	July August September
Native to	AB, SK

egg-shaped leaves about 7 cm long in opposite pairs

Where it has been recorded

BothSpecimensObservations

131 squares of about 28 km, each holding at least one record. A square is not a claim that the plant grows throughout it, and an unshaded square is unrecorded rather than empty. Darker squares hold more records, which follows roads and towns as much as it follows the plant. 28 herbarium specimens and 300 field observations this project may redraw. A filled dot is a pressed sheet somebody can re-examine; a hollow ring is a photograph identified by community agreement. Where the dots are dense is where people have looked, not where the plant is commonest, and empty ground is unsurveyed rather than unoccupied. How this map is made.

Which ecoregions the records fall in

Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 273 records, high confidence
Boreal Transition central AB / SK: 93 records, high confidence
Mid-Boreal Uplands central AB / SK: 62 records, high confidence
Moist Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 33 records, high confidence
Peace Lowland north AB: 7 records, low confidence
Slave River Lowland north AB: 5 records, low confidence

These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.

See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.

Documented animals

85 documented relationships.

nectar for

A Digger Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Aerial Yellowjacket Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Agapostemon splendens Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Agrotis ipsilon Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Allograpta obliqua Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Amblyptilia pica Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
American Bumble Bee Clint Otto et al. 2020
American Lady Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Ancistrocerus adiabatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Arcigera Flower Moth Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Arctic Yellowjacket Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Autographa californica Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Bald-faced Hornet Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Bicoloured Sweat Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Black Swallowtail Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Black-tailed Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Brown-belted Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Caenurgina erechtea Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Central Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Clouded Sulphur Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Common Checkered-Skipper Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Common Wood-Nymph Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Confused Eusarca Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Confusing Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Cosmopepla lintneriana Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Cryptic Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Dingy Cutworm Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Drone Fly Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Eastern Calligrapher Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Eastern Tailed-Blue Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Euodynerus foraminatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Euplexia benesimilis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Feltia herilis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Golden Northern Bumble Bee Clint Otto et al. 2020
Goldenrod Soldier Beetle Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Gray Hairstreak Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Great Spangled Fritillary Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Half-black Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Halictus ligatus Clint Otto et al. 2020
Hummingbird Clearwing Moth Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Hunt's Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Hylaeus modestus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Indiscriminate Cuckoo Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Labour Day Ant Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Lasioglossum albipenne Clint Otto et al. 2020
Melissodes bimaculatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Melissodes trinodis Clint Otto et al. 2020
Milbert's Tortoiseshell Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Monarch Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Morning-glory Plume Moth Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Nevada Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Northern Amber Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Northern Paper Wasp Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Orange Sulphur Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Painted Lady Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Peck's Skipper Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Phalaenophana pyramusalis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Pholisora catullus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Physocephala furcillata Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Physocephala tibialis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Pink-edged Sulphur Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Prochoerodes lineola Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Purple-backed Cabbageworm Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Pyrausta orphisalis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Red Admiral Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Red-belted Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Red-tailed Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Rhingia nasica Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Ruby-throated Hummingbird Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Salt Marsh Moth Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Saucrobotys futilalis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Scallop Shell Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Silver-spotted Skipper Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Snowberry Clearwing Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Spotted Cucumber Beetle Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Summer Azure Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Tawny-edged Skipper Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Tricoloured Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Western Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
White-banded Toothed Carpet Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Woodland Skipper Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Yellow Cuckoo Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Yellow-banded Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Yellow-collared Scape Moth Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Yellow-fronted Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org

Also worth knowing

Safety

Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety

Edible parts

Leaves, flowers

Buying it

About $8–$16 per plant (estimate), usually from a native-plant nursery. Estimate (herb default); AB retail as of 2026

Where these numbers came from

Flower detail: not verified, a genus-level estimate