Holy basil
ತುಳಸಿतुलसीதுழாஅய்
Ocimum tenuiflorum L.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 61 cm
- wide
- 30 cm
Lamiaceae
Also called Holy Basil, Tulsi, Krishna Tulsi
Formerly Geniosporum tenuiflorum, Lumnitzera tenuiflora, Moschosma tenuiflorum, Ocimum hirsutum, and 6 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Perennial or subshrubKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- Seasonally dry tropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Trop. & Subtrop. Asia to W. PacificKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from RHS and NC State Extension, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Height
- 51 cm to 71 cmRead from RHS and NC State Extension, checked: the middle of what its sources sayHalfway between its 2 sources, which differ. Sources differ: RHS 0.1–0.5 m; NC State Extension 3–3 ft
- Spread
- 10 cm to 51 cmRead from RHS, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from RHS and NC State Extension, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Flowers
- PinkRead from RHS and NC State Extension, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS pink; NC State Extension pink, purple, white
- Coldest it survives
- 5 °C (USDA zone 11a)Read from RHS, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Spanish
- Albahaca
- Japanese
- カミメボウキ, 神目箒
- Chinese
- 神羅勒
- Greek
- Ιερός βασιλικός
- Chinese (China)
- 圣罗勒, 打抛叶, 嘎抛
- Sinhala
- හීං මදුරුතලා
- Indonesian
- Ruku-ruku, Klampes
- Swedish
- helig basilika
- Thai
- กะเพรา
- Danish
- Hellig basilikum
- Russian
- Базилик священный
- Santali
- ᱛᱩᱞᱥᱤ
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-26, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- RHS, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-24, CC BY-SA 4.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Ocimum tenuiflorum (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.