The Maine-et-Loire department provides a wide variety of habitats that are home to a multitude of plant and animal species. Plants have long been a core part of Anjou’s identity, as one of the French departments with the richest diversity of flora.
Source : www.wiki-anjou.fr
Chemillé-en-Anjou, a dynamic area
In the south of Anjou, and part of the greater Mauges Community, the town of Chemillé-en-Anjou and its 13 affiliated municipalities form a lively territory that moves to the rhythm of nature and a thriving economy. Ours is a fertile land, an open area of farmland located in the middle of the dynamic triangle formed by the towns of Angers, Cholet and Nantes.
The link between the Anjou and Cholet regions, this transitional land where roofs of slate intermingle harmoniously with tile offers a varied landscape which some 22,000 inhabitants call home.
Chemillé-en-Anjou and medicinal plants
A little more than 150 years ago, the cultivation of medicinal plants was introduced in the Chemillé region. We owe the presence of this robust activity in our area to Aimé-Jean Godillon, a pharmacist and herbalist who specialized in the use of medicinal plants in Paris in the 1840s and who originally hailed from Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay in our own Maine-et-Loire department. When the phylloxera were ravaging 90% of French vineyards in 1883, a large number of farmers took up the cultivation of therapeutic plants, particularly Roman chamomile. Since that time, chamomile has become the symbol of the Chemillé region.
Over the years, that form of agricultural grew in the mild climate of our area. In the 20th century, Chemillé became the European capital of medicinal plants.