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Ocimum tenuiflorum
Also called Brush Leaf Tea, Sacred Basil, Krishna Tulsi
In Singapore: Holy Basil, Sacred Basil, Tulsi, 圣罗勒, 九层塔
Holy basil is an aromatic, many-branched perennial subshrub from South and Southeast Asia, grown for religious use, herbal tea and essential oil. It thrives in warm, sunny conditions and is cultivated widely across the Asian tropics, with a green-leaved and a purple-leaved form common in India and Nepal.
Ocimum tenuiflorum, commonly known as tulasi, tulsi, or holy basil, is an aromatic perennial plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is widely cultivated throughout the Southeast Asian tropics. It is native to tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Australia and the western Pacific. This plant has escaped from cultivation and has naturalized in many tropical regions of the Americas. It is an agricultural and environmental weed.
Tulasi is cultivated for religious and traditional medicine purposes, and also for its essential oil. It is widely used as an herbal tea, commonly used in Ayurveda. It has a place within the Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism, in which devotees perform worship involving the plant or its leaves.
Lemon basil · American basil · Ocimum basilicum var. minimum · Basil · Least basil · African basil · Hoary basil · Basil
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ocimum tenuiflorum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
