Nutmeg
Myristica fragrans · Myristicaceae · 참육두구
Look
- Leaves
- Smooth, glossy, long-elliptic simple leaves that smell pleasant when rubbed.
- Flowers
- Small, inconspicuous whitish-yellow flowers without petals.
- Fruit
- A drupe: inside a fragrant yellow husk are the seed kernel (nutmeg) and the red netted aril (mace) around it.
Where it grows
- Native to
- Native to the Maluku (Moluccas) Islands, growing in primary tropical rainforest.
- Ecology
- A tree that attracts birds; in the Maluku Islands, imperial pigeons (Ducula spp.) disperse the seeds.