Cloves are the dried, unopened flower buds of an evergreen tree indigenous to the Moluccas Islands ("The Spice Islands") but now cultivated throughout the tropics particularly East africa and Indonesia.
Cloves was one of the earliest spices to reach Europe and is prized for its strong, sweet, aromatic flavour. It is particularly well suited to flavour pork or ham dishes and is also used with stewed or baked fruit.
