Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Ocimum americanum; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-04-26

Ocimum americanum L.

American basil; Hoary basil; Bontulsi; Lime Basil

Lamiaceae · Cape Verde, Benin +65

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Ocimum americanum, photograph (c) Christine Laney, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ocimum americanum, photograph (c) Christine Laney, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ocimum americanum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedOcimum americanum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedOcimum americanum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedOcimum americanum, photograph (c) Mark Costello, some rights reserved (CC BY) 87 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
8.8°C
Record low 4.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jan, Feb, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
705mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September (November to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Ocimum americanum, known as American basil, lime basil, or hoary basil, is a species of an annual herb in the family Lamiaceae. Despite the misleading name, it is native to Africa, the Indian subcontinent, China, and Southeast Asia. The species is naturalized in Queensland, Christmas Island, and parts of tropical America.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ocimum americanum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Ocimum

Ocimum is a genus of aromatic annual and perennial herbs and shrubs in the family Lamiaceae, native to the tropical and warm temperate regions of all 6 inhabited continents, with the greatest number of species in Africa. Its best known species are the cooking herb basil, O. basilicum, and the medicinal herb tulsi , O. tenuiflorum.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ocimum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (448 mm of 587 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.3 °C against a yearly mean of 22.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

587 mm in the median year at the habitat, 448 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 108 mm, driest month July at 9 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 362 mm to 1,299 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 705 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 587 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 8.8 °C, the absolute minimum 4.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 11.2 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 5.5 °C to 22.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.1 °C in January and December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 59% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -150 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Ocimum americanum through the yearWarmest months January, February, November and December, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 11.2 °C; 587 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°40.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER4.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 27–42RH 53–59%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 374 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C30 / 28–3330 / 27–3429 / 26–3428 / 25–3326 / 22–3123 / 20–2923 / 20–2825 / 22–2828 / 25–3229 / 26–3430 / 27–3430 / 27–34
Night °C20 / 17–2420 / 17–2520 / 16–2418 / 13–2515 / 10–2412 / 6–2311 / 6–2213 / 8–2216 / 11–2218 / 13–2319 / 15–2420 / 16–24
Rain mm108 / 10–245104 / 26–23773 / 39–14041 / 20–11816 / 3–13810 / 1–1709 / 0–15011 / 0–9512 / 2–15540 / 12–11067 / 10–11196 / 11–161
DLI40 / 35–4838 / 35–4537 / 32–4233 / 28–3730 / 25–3427 / 23–3127 / 24–3232 / 26–3739 / 30–4342 / 31–4842 / 33–5041 / 35–52
RH %58 / 44–6459 / 47–6558 / 48–6457 / 47–6456 / 43–6554 / 43–6654 / 42–6853 / 38–6853 / 37–6855 / 40–6556 / 42–6458 / 42–64

Records on both sides of the equator: the 121 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 374 cells that remain: the 299 at least 10° south and the 75 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 374 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (446 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2293:4230 (-24.675, 31.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 374 distinct grid cells holding 446 of the 696 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (121 cells poleward of 10° north, 299 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2293:4230 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -24.50_31.250, lapse-corrected -150 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 404 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCape Verde, Benin, Burkina, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Comoros, Madagascar, China South-Central, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Queensland · introduced: Pakistan, Malaya, Christmas I., Marianas, Mexico Southeast, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-24.552, 31.097 · in the densest population, 294 records (23% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1265 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 446 of them in the land cells it reads, of 696 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 856 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 120 km away. 116 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 569 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1265 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ocimum americanum, photograph 1did not loadOcimum americanum, photograph 2did not loadOcimum americanum, photograph 3did not loadOcimum americanum, photograph 4did not loadOcimum americanum, photograph 5did not loadOcimum americanum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Christine Laney, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Mark Costello, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Dichrostachys cinerea Dichrostachys cinerea Aroma Photo: CC BY, Devendra Kumar GurjarSenegalia schweinfurthii Senegalia schweinfurthii River climbing acacia Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloCeropegia rogersii Ceropegia rogersii Apocynaceae Photo: CC0, rosshawkinsCyphostemma subciliatum Cyphostemma subciliatum Vitaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedTricliceras schinzii Tricliceras schinzii Lion's Eyes Photo: CC BY, Shedron MukhumoColeus lasianthus Coleus lasianthus Lamiaceae Photo: CC0, rosshawkins

Other Ocimum 11 in the reference

Ocimum × africanum Ocimum × africanum Lemon basil Photo: CC BY-SA, AnnLazaroOcimum basilicum Ocimum basilicum Sweet basil Photo: CC BY, Francisco Farriols SarabiaOcimum campechianum Ocimum campechianum Least basil Photo: CC BY, josebarrientosOcimum carnosum Ocimum carnosum Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, The Great WalterOcimum gratissimum Ocimum gratissimum African basil Photo: CC0, author not statedOcimum kilimandscharicum Ocimum kilimandscharicum Camphor basil Photo: CC BY-SA, Susan BrownOcimum labiatum Ocimum labiatum Large Shellbush Photo: CC0, author not statedOcimum lamiifolium Ocimum lamiifolium Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Susan BrownOcimum obovatum Ocimum obovatum Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Wynand UysOcimum reclinatum Ocimum reclinatum Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Chris VynbosOcimum tenuiflorum Ocimum tenuiflorum Holy basil Photo: CC BY, Mitul and Vijul Singh

Names & registers

Also known as Becium obovatum var. glabrior; Ocimum album; Ocimum americanum var. americanum; Ocimum brachiatum; Ocimum canum and 10 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina +64
Wild records
1265 in range · 856 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (10 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -24.50_31.250, lapse-corrected -150 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 137 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…