High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! This list of basil cultivars is a comprehensive list of cultivated varieties (cultivars) of basil. They are used in a variety of ways: as culinary herbs, landscape plants, healing herbs, teas, and for worship. All true basils are species of genus Ocimum. The genus is particularly diverse, and includes annuals, non-woody perennials and shrubs native to Africa and other tropical and subtropical regions of the Old and New World. Although there are an estimated 50 to 150 species of basil, most, but not all culinary basils are cultivars of O. basilicum, or sweet basil. Some are cultivars of other basil species, and others are hybrids. It is particularly challenging to determine which species a basil belongs to. This is because basil cross-breeds easily, and drawing boundaries between species is particularly difficult. In fact, recent studies have led to reclassification of some portions of the genus.