Ocimum gratissimum L.

Aromatic perennial herb 0.6-3 m tall. Stems erect, rounded-quadrangular, much branched, often striate, woody at base with epidermis often peeling in strips; glabrous or with scattered spreading hairs below, becoming pubescent at nodes and on inflorescence axis. Leaf blades often darker above, elliptic or ovate to broadly ovate, 1.5-15 x 1-8.5 cm, serrate, apex obtuse, acute or acuminate, base cuneate or attenuate, indumentum of scattered short hairs mostly confined to veins beneath, or lower surface pubescent with upper glabrous or pubescent overall, sometimes tomentose beneath; petiole 5-30 mm long, glandular-punctate or not. Inflorescence lax or dense (calyces of adjacent verticils touching or verticils c. 1 cm apart); bracts erect above forming a small green terminal coma, becoming retrorse and deciduous towards base, 3-12 x 1-7 mm, ovate or narrowly ovate, acuminate, sometimes cucullate; pedicels 3-4 mm long, spreading or ascending, slightly curved, ± flattened. Calyx horizontal, ± retrorse or strongly reflexed against inflorescence axis, 2-3 mm long at an thesis, pubescent, hoary or tomentose, with sessile glands or not; posterior lip large, rounded at tip, decurrent, teeth of anterior lip lanceolate, acuminate, teeth of lateral lobes bristle-pointed; fruiting calyx 6-8 mm long, tube closed, posterior lip accrescent, rounded or obtuse and wider at tip, decurrent, median lobes of anterior lip pressed against posterior lip, teeth of lateral lobes level with, or lower than, underside of anterior lip, sometimes spreading; indumentum pubescent, hoary or tomentose with sessile glands or not. Corolla green or dull white or pale yellow, 3-4 mm long; tube straight, funnel-shaped, scarcely exceeding calyx tube. Stamens exserted 1 mm from corolla, posterior with flattened, hairy or subglabrous appendage near base. Ovary glabrous. Nutlets brown, ± spherical, 1.5 mm across, minutely tuberculate, producing a small amount of mucilage when wet.

Along lake shores, in savannah vegetation, in submontane forest, and disturbed land; at elevations from sea level to 2,382 metres in west Africa.

Uses. Also cultivated as a hedge-plant, and found in native cemeteries. Leaves when bruised strongly smelling of cloves (f. caryophyllatum) or of thyme (f. graveolens). According to HEYNE ( HEYNE Nutt. Pl. 1927 1337 ) hardly of economic importance; an infusion of the leaves is used as a kind of tea in S. Sumatra. Also applied to ritual washing of corpses.

Plants can be grown from seed.