Ocimum basilicum L.

An aromatic annual or perennial herb ; up to 60 cm tall , often woody at base . Stems erect or ascending , quadrangular , branching above , glabrous or puberulent with minute hairs . Leaves 25-50 x 10-15 mm , greenish-purple , elliptic to ovate , base cuneate , apex acute to cuspidate , margins entire to shallowly serrate , glabrous or with small hairs on veins beneath , glandular dotted on both surfaces . Inflorescences (verticils) about 6-flowered , lax on the flowering axis ; bracts narrowly ovate to elliptical ; pedicel up to 3-4 mm , slightly curved , ± flattened . Flowers pink-purple or white ; calyx 2-lipped , 4-5 mm , enlarging to 8 mm in fruit ; upper lip of calyx formed by single upper lobe , entire , rounded at tip , decurrent into the calyx tube , curving upwards ; lower lip 4-lobed with lanceolate acuminate central teeth , lateral lobes deltate , cuspidate , pubescent or pilose , sparsely gland-dotted ; interior with a dense ring of hairs at throat ; corolla pink-purple or white , strongly 2-lipped , ... tubular below , 7-8 mm ; tube straight , scarcely exceeding the calyx ; upper lip 4-5 mm , subequally 4-lobed , lobes rounded ; lower lip 5 mm , ± horizontal , concave ; stamens 4 , exserted from corolla , filaments of the two posterior appendiculate near base . Fruit nutlets , 2 mm , dark brown to black , ± smooth , mucilaginous when wet . (Ref . Flora of Oman ; vol . 3) .

No Data

Not Evaluated (NE)

Common

Ocimum odorum Salisb.