The clove tree produces cloves, which are its dried unopened flower buds.
Cloves come from Syzygium aromaticum, an evergreen tree in the myrtle family. The unopened buds are harvested while they are still green, then dried until they become the familiar reddish-brown spice. Their strong aroma comes largely from eugenol, an essential-oil compound.
The species originated in the Maluku Islands, historically called the Spice Islands, in Indonesia. Cloves were traded across Asia and later became one of the spices that drew European maritime powers into the Indian Ocean trade.
Cloves are used in cooking, drinks, dentistry, and perfumery. They are not the dried fruit or bark of the tree. That distinction separates cloves from nutmeg, which is a seed, and cinnamon, which is inner bark.