Ocimum filamentosumForssk.

WFO wfo-0000253307 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Ocimum filamentosum, photographed by Swarochi Tathagath
fig. a Swarochi Tathagath, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-10-15 / obs. 163567540
Ocimum filamentosum, photographed by Swarochi Tathagath
fig. b Swarochi Tathagath, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163564478
Ocimum filamentosum, photographed by Swarochi Tathagath
fig. c Swarochi Tathagath, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163564483
Ocimum filamentosum, photographed by Ryan Donnelly
fig. d Ryan Donnelly, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201931456
Ocimum filamentosum, photographed by Ryan Donnelly
fig. e Ryan Donnelly, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201931475

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 21 botanical countries

Regions where Ocimum filamentosum is native: Angola, Botswana, Djibouti, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Mozambique, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka AngolaBotswanaDjiboutiEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMozambiqueNamibiaNorthern ProvincesSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZimbabweSaudi ArabiaYemenIndiaMyanmarSri Lanka
Native distribution of Ocimum filamentosum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Djibouti DJI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Northern Provinces TVL
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zimbabwe ZIM
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Myanmar MYA
Sri Lanka SRL
Saudi Arabia SAU ASIA-TEMPERATE
Yemen YEM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 117 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 6.6 °C 11.3 °C 15.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 29.6 °C 31.0 °C 34.3 °C
Annual rainfall 386 mm 575 mm 893 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 2 mm 20 mm 80 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 117 research-grade observations of Ocimum filamentosum that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 22 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Becium affine var. cyclophyllum Chiov.
  • Becium filamentosum (Forssk.) Chiov.
  • Becium knyanum (Vatke) G.Taylor
  • Becium knyanum var. diffusum Ayob.
  • Becium obovatum var. knyanum (Vatke) Cufod.
  • Ocimum adscendens Willd.
  • Ocimum calycosum Hochst. ex Briq.
  • Ocimum comigerum Hochst. ex Briq.
  • Ocimum cristatum Buch.-Ham. & K.D.Koenig ex Roxb.
  • Ocimum cyclophyllum (Chiov.) Chiov.
  • Ocimum exsul Collett & Hemsl.
  • Ocimum fissilabrum Briq.
  • Ocimum indicum B.Heyne ex Roth
  • Ocimum knyanum Vatke
  • Ocimum polycladum Briq.
  • Ocimum pubescens Bojer ex Benth.
  • Ocimum rautanenii Briq.
  • Ocimum stenoglossum Briq.
  • Ocimum verticillatum B.Heyne ex Hook.f.
  • Orthosiphon adscendens Benth. ex Sweet
  • Plectranthus indicus (B.Heyne ex Roth) Spreng.
  • Plectranthus menthoides Willd.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.