'Spice' and 'species' are doublets — both from Latin 'species' (kind). Spice narrowed to trade goods.
An aromatic or pungent vegetable substance used to flavour food, such as pepper, cinnamon, or nutmeg.
From Old French 'espice' (modern French 'épice'), from Latin 'speciēs,' meaning 'appearance, sort, kind' — and in Late Latin, 'goods, wares,' especially exotic goods like spices. The semantic path from 'kind, sort' to 'spice' passed through the commercial sense 'special goods' — spices were the most valuable and distinctive trade goods of the ancient and medieval world. Latin 'speciēs' derives from 'specere' (to look at), from PIE *speḱ- (to observe