Iraqi Reehan

'Iraqi Reehan' is a Baghdad market basil, collected at Al-Mustafa Market in Sadr City and brought into circulation by the Iraqi Seed Collective, a group of Iraqi-American growers formed in 2020 to keep Iraqi crop genetics alive and accessible within the diaspora; the Experimental Farm Network grows and distributes it from that collection. Reehan is the Arabic word for basil, built on the root meaning scent, and this variety earns the name — growers report detouring past the plants just for the smell. In leaf and bearing it reads much closer to Thai basil or tulsi than to broad-leaved Genovese, with a clear anise edge running under the basil. It is also, unusually for a basil sold in North America, a dual-purpose crop: the seed matters as much as the leaf, and the plant produces it in quantity.