Ding Xiang

Syzygium aromaticum, the clove tree, is an evergreen tree in the Myrtaceae, native to the Maluku (Moluccas) Islands of Indonesia and now cultivated throughout the wet tropics. The tree typically grows 8 to 12 meters tall, occasionally to 20 meters, with a conical to pyramidal crown of dense foliage and smooth, pale grey bark. Leaves are opposite, leathery, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 7 to 13 cm long, with a tapering apex, entire margin and pellucid oil glands; young foliage is bronze-pink and aromatic. Flowers are arranged in terminal trichotomous panicles, with the unopened buds being the commercial clove: pinkish at first, turning brick-red as they mature, 1 to 1.7 cm long, comprising a long fleshy hypanthium topped by four short, persistent calyx lobes and four overlapping petals enclosing many stamens. If allowed to open, the flowers are creamy-white and short-lived, followed by an oblong, reddish-purple fleshy fruit, the so-called mother-of-clove. The whole bud is intensely aromatic from eugenol-rich oil.