Sweet basil

Ocimum basilicum

Lamiaceae

The pesto leaf — a cooling kitchen mint for digestion and summer nerves.

Culinary annual. Distinct from holy basil (tulsi).

Parts used: Leaf · Flowering tops
Traditional notes: After a rich meal · Mild nervous tension · Kitchen seasoning · Mouth freshness
Grow · USDA 6b: Tender annual. Frost kills it. After last frost, or start indoors 4 weeks prior. In work: May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep
Harvest: Pinch tips before flower for the sweetest leaf.

Heat, sun, and pinching. Cold nights stall it.
Water the soil, not the leaves, if you want to avoid spots.
A pot on the kitchen step beats a neglected row.

Safety

Essential oil internally

Companions

Plant with Borage, Calendula, Cayenne, Eggplant, French marigold, Garlic.

Keep apart from Fennel.

Lookalikes

Holy basil — Sweet basil and holy basil are both Ocimum, and both are food — but tulsi is a different chemistry and a different kettle. Recipes are not interchangeable.

Lore

In some Greek villages it is still a royal plant; in India a close cousin is a goddess. Genovese pesto is a Ligurian invention that made Ocimum basilicum a summer annual in every temperate garden. Cold nights blacken it for spite.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.