Clove
Clove
English name: Clove
Scientific name: Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. & L.M.Perry
Taxonomic Position According to Cronquist (1981)
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Angiosperm
Class: Eudicots
Order: Myrtales
Family: Myrtaceae
Genus: Syzygium
Species: S. aromaticum 
Botanical Description of Clove
Habit: The clove tree is a small, handsome, evergreen tree, reaching 12-15 m in height, conical in shape when young, later become roughly cylindrical.
Roots: The seedlings produces a pronounced tap root which remains relatively short and is fairly quickly replaced by two or three primary sinkers which develop from it.
Stems: The trunk up to 30 cm in diameter is composed of very hard wood. It often forks near the base into two or three main erect branches, a habit which is sometime simulated by planting two or three seedlings close together.
Leaves: These are simple, opposite, coriaceous, extipulate, glabrous and aromatic . The petiole is slender 2-3 cm long, Somewhat swollen and pinkish at the base and with the leaf blade partly decurrent upon it in the upper portion. The lamina is lanceolate or narrowly elliptical or obovate, the apex is shortly or broadly bluntly acuminate and the base is cuneate.
Flower: The inflorescence is a terminal, corymbose, trichotomous panicle, shortly pedunculate and branched from the base. The flower is hermaphrodite with a fleshy hypanthium which is surmounted by the sepals. The four calyx lobes are fleshy, triangular, slightly incurved. The four petals are imbricate, tinged red, rounded. The stamens are very numerous, appearing grouped in four masses. The anthers are pale-yellow, ovate, opening longitudinally wit small pale brown in colour, The style is very stout, swollen at the base, pale green and gland-dotted.
Fruits: The fruits called mother of cloves are oblong, fleshy, drupes, usually shortly tapering at each end reddish purple in color. They are surmounted by the four enlarged fleshy calyx lobes. There is a thin fleshy pericarp about 2-3 mm thick.