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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-580
African Blue Basil
Ocimum kilimandscharicum
African Blue Basil is a sterile hybrid between camphor basil and the purple-leaved Dark Opal basil, propagated from cuttings rather than seed since it never sets fruit. Its leaves carry a hint of camphor over an ordinary spicy basil flavor and are best used fresh, in salads, drinks and ice cube purees, since basil does not dry well. Because it never sets seed it never stops flowering either, blooming from summer until frost and giving bees a season-long nectar source that a seed-setting basil cannot. Its wild parent species, true camphor basil, is instead grown commercially as a source of camphor and planted by doorways and seating as a mosquito repellent.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 10–11
- Soil
- Loam
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained · Moist
Vertical layer
Shrub- Soil pH
- 5.5–7.5
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 12–36 in
- Mature spread
- 10–36 in
- Plant spacing
- 12–36 in
- Root type
- Not yet recorded
- Spread pattern
- None
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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