basil

Ocimum basilicum

“With eyes closed, we home in on subtle accents, herby rosemaries and punchy phenols, woodsy eucalypts and spicy carnations,” Saffron is advocating on behalf of our featured extract, considered in Hindu tradition an archetype of Hindu femininity.

“Within your roots are all the sacred places of the world, and inside your stem live all the gods and goddesses, and your leaves radiate every form of sacred fire, tulsi, you are mother of the universe,” she reads from Vedic scripture, which is not known for restraint of poetic expression.

But the holy tulsi of India is only one of many dozens of species and subspecies of basil, the designations of which are innumerable. Even taxonomic botanists have been bested when it comes to straightening out the craggy eclectic roll call of names.

“We have sweet basil, exotic basil, Reunion basil, estragole basil, African blue basil, Thai lemon basil…”

There is a sarcastic adage that experts of systematic nomenclature explain things by making them unintelligible, and this warning is especially applicable to assignments of disentangling knotted cases of cultivated plants … basil, for instance.

“The inexplicable is earmarked.”

The taxon referred to as basil includes many variants of interest to fanciers who move plant stocks around, which is to say that plants become displaced from their native ranges, and so phyletic indications from local floras get lost, the relational clues no longer available to taxonomists.

“The incomprehensible is cornered.”

And new environments invite adaptive modifications, which are prone to become exaggerated since visible changes are subject to intentional selection by breeders, and favored phenotypes are also promoted by people unconsciously. And then botanists must also reckon with new hybrids, accidental and deliberate, new mutations sports forms lines clones, achh — it can be a messy business, plant systematics.

“The inconceivable is concretized.”

Yet it appears for sure, that no matter all the dizzying diverseness within and between factions and congregations of basil, still basil is basil — basil is basil is basil still, see? No matter the interspecific hybridization, no matter the floating discontinuities, no matter the blurry interfaces — no matter the threat by variation to chemical and morphological and aesthetic unity — still basil is not rosemary is not spearmint — yes no? There’s a basil-ness to basil that’s absent elsewhere in Nature — no yes?

“The unfathomable is realized.”

And, much as cohesive subdivisions of basil plants are sometimes found at different taxonomic levels (cultivars varieties species), the genus basil remains still forever basil — it makes little difference, the widely fluctuating proportions of chemical components between races — still forever basil — it makes little difference, the polymorphism and extreme olfactive and chemical heterogeneity within populations — still forever basil — it makes little difference, that patterns of variation contort and shift and transpose in space and time among units of basil plants — still forever basil.

“The secret formulas of the scientist.”

There are tarragon-like and thyme-like and anise-like and cinnamon-like and lemon-like strains of basil, methyl chavicol-rich and eugenol-rich and linalol-rich and camphor-rich and methyl cinnamate-rich forms of basil, French Comorian Indian Thailandian Zanzibarian Nepalese Bulgarian Haitian Egyptian Russian Pakistani Spanish Vietnamese Moroccan Guatemalan Malagasy and North African types of basil, wild and cultivated field populations of basil, basil plants distilled when dry and others when fresh (better).

“The master keys of the artist.”

There are basil extracts used to produce brandies, incense and liniments, clove oils and food flavors, vanilla tinctures and aromatic nerve tonics, basil oils employed diversely to quell menstrual cramps or palliate athralgia, ease allergic rhinitis or subdue gastric upset, calm local inflammation or provoke blood flow when used as a rubefacient, basil for fever rabies nausea tumor ringworm coughing snakebite malaria … and perfume.

“The guiding principles of the cleric.”

Yet there is no good way to chart any of this? no possibility to superimpose a template and concisely classify, no manner to match morphotype to chromotype to ecotype to chemotype, no method to neatly correlate chemistry with weather with morphology with geography with phylogeny with cultural applications with biological activity with cultivation and production methods — linkages are aplenty yet inconsistent, confounding even.

“Everyone craves the code.”

So how shall we best make out the basis of basil? the negotiation between variousness and unity, the enigmatic dance of accommodation that takes place within the world of this thing, this entity … basil. The biotic scenario we face could perhaps be appreciated with the help of an encapsulating axiom:

“Different articles and affairs of Life, in different ways diverge and unite, sounds right?”

All the same, with respect to our appraisal of basil, we endeavor to become better at navigating the maze of variation we find among this balkanized constellation of plants, so very assorted yet still curiously cohering together … as basil, and better at how to identify and take measure of the basis of deviation and integrity of aesthetic expression (wish us good luck, and let us know should you strike upon a good cipher).

“Presenting itself right before our eyes, it should be plain to recognize.”

Saffron initiates the ritual of beholding, sending scentful samples for passing along the chain of panel members present, “The sample from France (herbe royal) serves a verdant impression of fresh-cut leaves in a cool breeze teeming with busy bees — I’d say, a display of, say, something like hay soaking in a cordial, like in an achingly mellifluous pastis — or rather, a bracing herbaceous tonic or digestif, only faintly sweet — try the holy basil, it effluviates layers like tides of clovey tones — and this one, a molecular benediction from Egypt, a vaporish spice box — next is what, a Mexican basil? which is surprisingly woodsy? — the soothing effect is like a fragrant dream of cream of fennel soup — “

“We know that it will materialize, when we meet with it in whichever guise.”

“…this coarser Reunion type goes by estragole, synonymous with methyl chavicol which provides anisic liquorice tonality — the Thailand type could be mistaken for melissa? or combava petitgrain? a citrus twist? lemon-kissed? (a hesperidic tryst?) — a turn following is themed upon properties of peppery allspice, then warm tea, then hot earth — notice the shade of styrofoam? — huh? — this next aeolian has a chilly minty headnote like a cineolic speedboat, makes sense? — most of these basils are blowy and flowy and airy and fresco — the joint olfactive manifesto seems to emanate from pesto.”

So what shall we extract from this exercise? What understanding can be distilled? insight concentrated? meaning condensed? lesson spun out and boiled down? That the observed display of discrepancy is the language of natural variety which is actually the language of Earthly vitality, being the language of biotic disparity being the state of organic irregularity being biological reality?

“To simplify is to falsify, and yet not to simplify is to remain incoherent,” Saffron recites from her journal of clippings on evolution.

Let’s say, that Life is for us an ever-changing dynamic story of live interest … on the grounds that we rarely find any sort of hard and constant definitional breaks, only shifting transitional degrees resting on elusive specificities, fluxing and fluid variations resting on passing particularities … leading us finally to concede to make peace with the unfathomableness of Creation.

“For those taking notes, it is with intention that we cap the letter C in Creation.”

Still we wonder … whereas the multitude of basil plants are integrated in myriad ecologies of Life involving billions of bits of information assembled during inconceivable numbers of evolutionary events, nonetheless the wealth of different forms appears to convey variations of a common message. What is that message?

“A single concept, a distinct contour, a basic shape … let’s say, Goethe’s Grundgestalt?”

What makes basil always basil always basil? Some say there is cohesion due to delimited gene transfer, others play up a more opaque interplay of divergence and likeness, emergent consolidating and separating qualities of organic Life identified only with great difficulty, emphasizing that every alive being has some kind of interior essence that beanbag genetic programs have difficulty accounting for.

“An archetypal form, an ideal development, an essential process … let’s say, Goethe’s Urphänomen?”

Supposing commonality involves organization rather than composition? that the term basil does not denote any given well-balanced conformation, not any given harmonious structure or stable state, but instead something more like a strategy for living, a loose plan, a broad approach, like a proven biological institution, like an evolutionary foundation developed among efflorescing Life in order to preserve certain subtle ways to flourish in the World? Along these lines, we’d view Nature as comprising representatives or graduates of such programs … plants and perfumes.

“Basil is an element of the husk, while this inquiry bears on the core of Creation?”

Let’s put it this way — inasmuch as these aromatic agents of autotrophic Life demonstrate the play of chance and necessity, randomness is plenty evident, but in the case of basil, what’s the common necessity?

“A unifying principle? a primal phenomenon? an inherent lawfulness?”

Put another way (I recall a quote but can’t place the source) — insofar as art expresses that which is restrained, the essence of every picture is the frame. So then, for plants that we label as basil, plants distinguished by whatever those virtues are that are faithful to the label basil … what constitutes the frame? (not a trick question).