Mayo/Yoeme

This is a seed-bank accession rather than a commercial cultivar. Native Seeds/SEARCH catalogues it as HB004, an Ocimum basilicum collected from a low coastal site in Sonora, Mexico at about 197 feet elevation and associated with the Mayo people, who call themselves Yoeme. In Sonora it is grown as much as a strongly scented medicinal plant as a kitchen herb, and NS/S lists both uses alongside flavouring vinegars and oils. Growers reporting back to NS/S consistently find it gentler than the sweet basils they were used to, mild enough to eat as a salad green rather than as a seasoning. Its white and pink-to-purple flowers make it a reasonable ornamental in a mixed bed, and because it is a bank accession the published documentation is much thinner than for a catalogue variety.