Botanical name: Syzygium aromaticum    Family: Myrtaceae (Bottlebrush family)
Synonyms: Caryophyllus aromaticus, Eugenia caryophyllata

Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree, native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia. The clove tree is an evergreen that grows up to 8-12 m tall, with large leaves and crimson flowers grouped in at branch-ends clusters. The flower buds initially have a pale hue, gradually turn green, then transition to a bright red when ready for harvest. Cloves are harvested at 1.5-2 cm long, and consist of a long sepal-cup that terminates in four spreading sepals, and four unopened petals that form a small central ball. Clove stalks are slender stems of the inflorescence axis that show opposite decussate branching. Externally, they are brownish, rough, and irregularly wrinkled longitudinally with short fracture and dry, woody texture. Mother cloves (anthophylli) are the ripe fruits of cloves that are ovoid, brown berries, unilocular and one-seeded. Blown cloves are expanded flowers from which both flowere and stamens have been detached. Exhausted cloves, also known as used cloves, have most or all the oil removed by distillation. Clove are extensively used in cooking.

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The flower labeled Clove is ...