Gardening with Wilson

In the July 09 issue of the Home Concepts magazine, I penned an article entitled ‘Spice of Life’ for the regular Garden Treats column. In it, I introduced five common trees that are sources of culinary spices. Spices is a term that is used to refer to dried plant parts that are used in small quantities to flavour the food we enjoy. Some of them also possess medicinal uses. On the other hand, the word ‘herbs’ is used to call entire plants or parts of a plant used in the fresh form for flavouring food. Both terms are used interchangably and have caused much confusion.

Depending on what are the spices, they can be derived from bark, leaves, flower buds, fruits, aril and rhizomes of plants. In my article, I introduced five common culinary spices and the reader can expect to see excellent pictures depicting the five spices, together with their leaves and fruits (where applicable)!

One of the first spices that was mentioned is the candlenut (Aleurites moluccanus, Euphorbiaceae). The part of plant used for flavouring purposes is the seed kernel of the candlenut fruit.

Another common spice, cinnamon, which is available in quills are derived from the bark of trees belonging to the genus Cinnamomum. Cinnamomum verum yields the true cinnamon whereas C. aromaticum is the source of Chinese cassia, which is often used to make the five spice powder. Both trees are members of the Lauraceae.

Clove is derived from the unopened flower buds of the tree, Szygnium aromaticum, a member of the Myrtaceae family. Common tropical fruits such as the jambu and guava are classified in the same family.

Mace & nutmeg come from the same tree, Myristica fragrans (Myristicaceae) and tamarind is derived from the fruits of Tamarindus indica, which is a member of the bean family, Fabaceae.

These five spices are derived from various tropical tree species which are well at home in the tropics. In Singapore, some of them are grown in our public parks or planted along our roads. To see some them all at once, pay a visit to the herb and spice gardens at Fort Canning Park and Singapore Botanic Gardens. Both green spaces have numerous mature trees and if one is there at the right time, he/she can see the trees in flower or producing fruit.