'Dire Dawa' Basil

Ocimum spp. Origin: Dire Dawa, Ethiopia Improvement status: Cultivar Seeds per packet: ~40 Germination tested 12/2024: 44% Life cycle: Annual EFN INTRODUCTION. We've grown (or otherwise encountered) many basils through the years — various Italian basils, tulsi basils, other African basils, Southeast Asian basils, hoary basils — but we've never smelled, tasted, or seen anything quite like this one. It's something else entirely. Collected by USDA plant explorer William Andrew Archer in 1951, this basil comes from Dire Dawa in eastern Ethiopia, a predominantly Oromo and Somali city located not far from the Somali border. We got it from the USDA's North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station in Ames, Iowa.  Frankly, we're not even sure what species this basil is — though the USDA records it as Ocimum basilicum (the same species as common Genovese basil). We think there's a chance it might be of hybrid origin, possibly with some clove basil (Ocimum gratissimum) or the Ethiopian tulsi c