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- ›flowering plants
- ›Dicots
- ›Mints, Plantains, Olives, and Allies
- ›Mint Family
- ›Nepetoideae
- ›Ocimeae
- ›Ociminae
- ›Ocimum
Sweet basil
Ocimum basilicum
Basil UK: /ˈbæzəl/; US: /ˈbeɪzəl/ (Ocimum basilicum), also called great basil or Saint-Joseph's-wort, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is also called the "king of herbs" and the "royal herb". The name "basil" comes from Greek βασιλικόν φυτόν (basilikón phutón), "royal/kingly plant".
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Ocimum basilicum in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 61398.