Plant · P-574

Nutmeg

Myristica fragrans

Nutmeg is a tropical evergreen tree that produces two spices from a single fruit: the seed kernel is ground into nutmeg, and the scarlet aril wrapped around it is dried into mace. The fruit's flesh and husk are also eaten, cooked into jellies and preserves rather than thrown away. In doses much above what a recipe calls for, the seed's myristicin causes severe headache, nausea and delirium and can be lethal, so it belongs well out of reach of children and stock. It is strictly a lowland tropical tree - frost kills it, it needs steady year-round rain with no dry season, and trees are separately male and female, so a planting needs roughly one male for every ten females to set fruit.