The seedling produces a pronounced tap root which remains relatively short and is fairly quickly replaced by two or three primary sinkers which develop from it. During the first year, a mass of fibrous roots spread out from the tap root to a depth of about 25 cm and a radius of 36-50 cm.

The inflorescence is a terminal, corymbose, trichotomous panicle, shortly pedunculate and branched from the base, shorter than the leaves, and very variable in the number of flowers, from 3 flowers on a simple three-forked peduncle to as many as 50 or more when conditions have favoured the triple subdivisions of the peduncle. The angled peduncles and shorter pedicels, about 5 mm long, constitute the clove stems of commerce. The bracts and bracteoles are narrow, acute, 2-3 mm long, and quickly falling. The flower is hermaphrodite with a fleshy hypanthium which is surmounted by the sepals.

The hypanthium is 1.0-1.5 cm long, about 5 mm in diameter below the lobes, cylindrical, angled, with the base slightly narrowed. It is green in the young bud, flushed pink at anthesis and turning a deep reddish colour after the stamens have fallen. The four calyx lobes are fleshy, triangular, slightly incurved, 3-4 mm long, and are easily observed in the spice. The inflorescences are harvested when the buds have reached their full size, but before they open, so that the petals, together with the stamens inside, form the head of the dried clove.

The four petals are imbricate, tinged red, rounded, about 6 mm in diameter, falling as a hemispherical calyptra, about 6 mm in diameter, as the flowers open, but they are not agglutinated and are easily separable.

The lamina is lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, sometimes narrowly obovate, 7-13 cm long, 3-6 cm wide, and pellucid- dotted with glands; the apex is shortly or broadly bluntly acuminate and the base is cuneate. The new leaves appear in flushes and are bright pink. Later the upper surface becomes glossy and dark green, and the lower surface dull and paler.

The anthers are pale yellow, ovate, opening longitudinally, with a small, pale brown, inconspicuous connective gland. The style is very stout, swollen at the base, pale green, gland-dotted, and about 3-4 mm long. The stamens fall soon after the flowers open. The two-celled, multi-ovulate, inferior ovary is embedded in the top of the hypanthium.