SANTOLINA CHAMAECYPARISSUS

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Name:- Cotton lavender

Synonym:- Achillea chamaecyparissus, Santolina cupressiformis,

Santolina pallida.

Meaning:- Santolina (L) Holy-flax.

Chamaecyparissus (L) A name used by the Roman naturalist and

philosopher Pliny for a ground-hugging cypress.

General description:- Dwarf, aromatic, greyish- or whitish hairy, evergreen shrub

Stems:-

1) 10-50 cm, erect or ascending; non-flowering shoots green to grey-

tomentose,,flowering stems usually simple, leafless for some distance below

the capitulum.

Leaves:-

1) Alternate, small, narrow-oblong, toothed to pinnately-lobed, crowded on the non-

flowering stems, almost round in cross section.

Flowers:-

1) Involucre 6-10 mm wide, hemispherical, subtruncate and not or weakly

umbilicate at the base.

2) Bracts lanceolate to ovate, carinate, the inner with rounded, lacerate, scarious

apex.

3) Florets cream to bright yellow.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes oblong, weakly 3- to 4(-5)-angled.

2) Pappus absent.

Key features:-

1) Pinnae or teeth crowded.

2) Leaves pinnatisect; grey-tomentose.

3) Peduncles not thickened above.

4) 7 Lobes of leaves crowded; more than 1·5 mm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Dry rocky habitats, lowland and in the mountains.

Distribution:- Widespread throughout the Mediterranean. Distribution on Crete

unknown. Introduced

Flowering time:- May-Aug.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis