'Kirkuk' Hoary Basil

Ocimum americanum

Origin: Kirkuk, Iraq

Improvement status: Landrace

Seeds per packet: ~35

Germination tested 02/2025: 90%

Life cycle: Annual

From Kirkuk, Iraq, this hoary basil is a prolific producer of seeds — which are pretty much the main-event with this species, though the leaves have a musky-minty flavor and are excellent for tea. The seeds are used in the Middle East primarily for desserts and beverages. They're similar to chia seeds in that they surrounding themselves with a sticky mucilaginous goo upon submersion in water.

This species (or possibly species complex) also has a long history of medicinal use, including against cough and other respiratory conditions, rheumatism, colic, conjunctivitis, malaria, and headache, and for its analgesic effects. In parts of Africa, a water-based extract has traditionally been used to manage diabetes and liver conditions.

"Hoary" is an archaic English word that means "greyish-white." While the leaves of this basil are distinctly green, they are perhaps somewhat paler and grayer than other basils, which likely gave rise to the name (it is also sometimes called "lime basil," but so are other basils). The common name of this species is odd enough, but the botanical name — Ocimum americanum — is downright stupid. This plant has nothing to do with America. It most likely originated in Africa, and is also considered native in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China. It's worth mentioning, however, that basil taxonomy is still rather confused, so once scientists dig deeper into the family they might find that this species doesn't exist at all, or that this particular variety doesn't fit within it. Nevertheless, it's an amazing plant and we highly recommend you try it!

Our seeds were grown by EFN co-founder Nate Kleinman in collaboration with our friends at partners at The Seed Farm at Princeton University. We will donate 25% of the proceeds of this seed to the Iraqi Seed Collective to support their important work preserving Iraqi and other Southwest Asian seeds.

GROWING TIPS: Start as you would any other basil, surface-sowing seeds on a sterile growing medium a few weeks prior to last frost. Keep warm and well watered. For best seed and leaf production, pinch off flower buds as often as possible (at least every week or two), allowing the plant to get bigger and bigger. Once it flowers and begins to set seed, it will largely stop growing altogether.

NOTE: We failed to get a good photo of these plants, so the main photo here is of a similar-looking Ocimum americanum plant, from users Ragnhild&Neil Crawford of Sweden under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. The second photo shows how many seeds were harvested from about ten plants one day (bag is a gallon-sized Ziploc).