Ocimum basilicum  

leaves acute. calyx c. 6mm long in fruit. cultivated herb.Annual or perennial aromatic much-branched shrubby herbs with indumentum of simple spreading and

retrorse hairs. Leaves undivided, shortly petiolate, densely glandular-punctate on both sides, ovate to
ovate-oblong, crenulate to subentire. Verticillasters 6-10-flowered, in terminal and lateral, lax or dense
racemes; "bracts small, different from leaves, deciduous. Flowers short-pedicellate; pedicels spreading or
apressed to the axis of inflorescence, reflexed at apex. Calyx ovoid-campanulate, 10-nerved, bilabiate;
upper lobe much wider than others and decurrent on the tube; lower lip of 4 similar lobes or the lateral pair
ovate, in some the lateral lobes reduced to a row of teeth or teeth and hairs or only a row of hairs and the
lower pair narrow lanceolate acuminate, upwards curved in fruit; tube glabrous within or densely villous.
Corolla bilabiate, upper lip subequally 4-lobed, lower lip entire, flat, spreading. Stamens 4, exerted,
didynamous. Style apically bifid. Nutlets oblong-ellipsoid, apically rounded, mucilaginous on wetting or not.