description
Humulus lupulus is a species of flowering plant in the Cannabaceae family.
It is a dioecious, perennial, herbaceous climbing plant which sends up new
shoots in early spring and dies back to a cold-hardy rhizome in autumn.
Strictly speaking it is a bine rather than a vine, using its own shoots to
act as supports for new growth.
The root is stout and perennial. The stem that arises from it every year is of a
twining nature, reaching a great length, flexible and very tough, angled and
prickly, with a tenacious fiber. The leaves are heart-shaped and lobed, on
foot-stalks, and as a rule placed opposite one another on the stem, though
sometimes the upper leaves are arranged singly on the stem, springing from
alternate sides. They are of a dark-green color with their edges finely
toothed. The flowers spring from the axils of the leaves.
The hop is dioecious,
i.e. male and female flowers are on separate plants. The male flowers are in
loose bunches or panicles, 3 to 5 inches long. The female flowers are in leafy
cone-like catkins, called strobiles. When fully developed, the strobiles are
about 1 1/4 inch long, oblong in shape and rounded, consisting of a number of
overlapping, yellowish-green bracts, attached to a separate axis.
If these leafy
organs are removed, the axis will be seen to be hairy and to have a little
zigzag course. Each of the bracts enfolds at the base a small fruit (achene),
both fruit and bract being sprinkled with yellow translucent glands, which
appear as a granular substance.
It is these ripened cones of the female hop plant that
are used in brewing, and female plants only are cultivated, since it is from these alone
that the fruits can be obtained.
common names & nomenclature
The origin of the name of the hop genus, Humulus, has been assumed by some
that it is derived from humus—the rich moist ground in which the plant
grows.
The specific name Lupulus, is derived from the Latin, lupus (wolf). Pliny explains that the hops plant strangles other growth by
its light climbing embraces, as the wolf does a sheep.
The English name hop
comes from the Anglo-Saxon hoppan (to climb).
Also known as:
common hops, hops, hop
