Cloves

An evergreen, the clove tree ranges in height from 33 to 66 feet (10 to 20 meters) and it is from this tree that the unopened flower buds are harvested, dried, and sold as a spice. Until the last couple of hundred years, cloves grew mainly in the Molucca Islands, historically known as the Spice Islands (see sidebar). Now the cultivation of cloves has expanded into parts of South America the West Indies, East Africa, and India. Indonesia, however, remains the single largest producer of cloves in the world.