Nutmeg

Nutmeg, common name applied to any of a family of evergreen shrubs and trees. The family comprises about 19 genera and 400 species distributed throughout the tropics. Plants in the family are dioecious (male and female flowers appear on different plants), with inconspicuous flowers. Members of several other families are sources of nutmeg substitute, such as Brazilian nutmeg, Peruvian nutmeg, and West African nutmeg. The true nutmeg is native to the Moluccas in Indonesia. It has also been widely cultivated in southern Asia, the West Indies, and Brazil for its fruits, which yield two spices, and for its timber. The fruit is a yellow drupe having a diameter of about 5 cm (2 in), popularly called the nutmeg apple, which splits into two halves, thereby revealing the seed surrounded by an outer coating resembling a fleshy, reddish net. This seed is dried to form the culinary spice popularly known as nutmeg. The fleshy reddish coat around the seed is peeled off and also dried to form the spice known as mace. The true nutmeg tree grows to a height of about 15 m (50 ft).

Scientific classification: The true nutmeg tree is classified as Myristica fragans in the family Myristicaceae. Brazilian nutmeg is classified as Cryptocarya moschata in the family Lauraceae, Peruvian nutmeg as Monodora myristica in the family Annonaceae, and the West African nutmeg as Laurelia sempervirens in the family Monimiaceae.