There are several species of perilla, as the following indicates. They are usually divided into 'red' or 'green' categories because they have somewhat different uses. Sorry, I don't have botanical names for each.

Used as a sweet-spicy flavouring for oriental dishes such as stirfries, with raw fish and sliced cucumber, in vegetable dishes, rice and soups. Red perilla is used as a red or pink food colouring, for pickling fruit and vegetables, especially preserved ginger and pickled sour plums, and as a dried powder to be used as a side dish with rice, as an ingredient in cake mixes and as a flavouring in beverages, as a condiment with sushimi. The sprouts can be used as a garnish. Green perilla or oba, is used as a vegetable, for wrapping rice cake, in salads and tempura, and go well with sweet potato. The seeds of perilla are used to make oil, and to flavour foods, especially pickles. Seeds (called egoma) can be used on baked goods, like sesame seeds. The flowerheads are used as a condiment. The oil from the seeds resembles Linseed oil, and is used as a food flavouring in confectionery and sauces.

I guess you'd get more details from a Japanese food site.

Thanks Daisy, that helps me quite a bit. I'd like to grow the one with green tops and purple undersides of the leaves. Which one do you have in your garden?

LOL! None in my garden at the moment - I hope! I had the red one, but it attracted SWARMS of grasshoppers to my garden (with help from the amaranthus), which decimated not only the perilla but almost everything else, so I got rid of it. It took several years to get rid of the self-seeded volunteers it left behind. Between the perilla and the amaranthus, I am left with recurring nightmares of grasshoppers and destruction!! I will never grow either of them again. Which is a pity in some ways, because both are very pretty plants in a herb garden. And I really wanted to get some amaranthus seeds in bulk for cooking. I can't get them anywhere.

Jamus, have you seen this website. It has a picture of a perilla matching your description. It is called Chinese common perilla or plain-leaf perilla.

Here is a link that might be useful: Perilla

Anna that's it! Thankyou for finding that resource. I have bought a bunch from an Asian grocer and am trying to strike cuttings from it at the moment. Too early to tell yet if they have struck, fingers crossed. It's got a much better flavour I think than the Japanese variety.

Hi Jamus

I've got three varieties of Perilla, green, red and the Chinese one, the same one that you bought from Asian grocer, green on top, red on the other side.

I found the taste of the Chinese very similar to green shiso but leaves are bigger and more circular with smaller teeth. The plant grows much taller than green shiso but this is good since it grows more leaves per plant.

Red shiso in Japan is used to colour pickled veggies, like pickled plum (called Ume-boshi). For culinary purposes, I find green shiso has more use than the red variety.

I grew my Chinese variety from cuttings from ones bought at an Asian grocers as well. It was dead easy so I'm pretty sure yours are going to go OK too.

Right now I have heaps of self-seeded seedlings of all three varieties and would very much like to give away some if anyone cares to drive over this way.

Cheers,

Maki

Maki, thanks for your advice. The cuttings I tried to stirke died unfortunately, some kind of soil fungus I think. I'm going to try again and give them a bit less water. Thanks everyone for your help, finally I feel like I understand Perilla frutescens!

Excuse the ignorance, but what is perilla used for in cooking? Is it a potherb or does it provide substantial 'greens'? I've only ever seen it as plate decoration in Japanese restaurants.
Many thanks,
Ray

Raymondo, I use it in warm and cold asian style salads. It's great in Vietnamese style cold rolls, traditionally used to wrap sushi in japan and korea. I like the flavour and use it like fresh basil, really unique and quite robust, not a shrinking violet by any means.

Good news, the tip cuttings I made from the Chinese variety have struck! They are being cared for with love and tenderness until the get established after which I expect they will be more than able to fend for themselves. :) **Much jubilation**

Further to the Perilla saga, I recently aquired a plant of the green Japanese/Korean variety at the annual meeting of the South Austrlaian Herb Society. It's growing well, so are the cuttings of the Chinese variety, and I have HUNDREDS of seedlings of the red variety, so I now have all three! If any one would like seed let me know! I'll be collecting all three and trying to keep them seperate during flowering for seed stocks.

Maki - I was wondering, do your perillas cross pollinate? Do you get one variety dominating the others?

Hello everybody!
I do not mean to intrude, I am experiencing a shiso super abundance in southern California and google brought me to this thread. I have shiso growing really large on several garden spots! Some of it is almost getting invasive, so i would like to prune it, harvest it and use a whole bunch of it. I have both the purple and green types.
I was hoping someone could point me to some cooked recipes, like for spinach? this would let me use a large volume of the leaves. A tea also sounds nice, I will look into that option. How would one make a drink?
Thanks in advance!

Jamus.. would love some red variety seed in due course. Just discovered our little perilla friend and it look very interesting.. we also grow our herbs and veg amongst the flowers etc (but don't put artichoke next to roses) so some more red foliage will go a treat.