Plant · P-579

Holy Basil

Ocimum tenuiflorum

Holy Basil, or tulsi, is a fast-growing aromatic subshrub from South and Southeast Asia, sacred in Hindu tradition and one of the few plants rated equally high for both food and medicine - its clove-scented leaves flavour salads and teas, while its role as a major Ayurvedic herb includes lowering fever, easing spasm and research-backed blood sugar reduction. It flowers almost continuously, drawing pollinators and beneficial insects for as long as it is left standing, and its essential oil doubles as an insect repellent. Frost kills it outright, but where the climate allows it self-sows so freely that several countries list it as weedy - vigour that simply means volunteer seedlings need cutting or grazing off before they set more seed. Its dried stems are even cut into beads for prayer rosaries.