Originating in southern Asia and then spreading through the Middle East and into southern Europe, licorice is first reported in England as grown at a monastery in Pontefract, from where its fame spread to the United States and beyond.Liquorice or licorice is the common name of Glycyrrhiza glabra, a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavouring can be extracted.