Medicinal and aromatic plants – industrial profiles

L. latifolia
Medik (
L. spica
L. var. 

; 
L. latifolia
Villers)
Shrub 50–70 (100) cm. Leaves grey, linear-lanceolate to spathulate in outline. Inflorescence stalk
distinctly branched usually forming a trident shaped flower spike, up to 25 cm high. Spike often
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Tim Upson

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interrupted, 5–8 cm long. Bracts subtending cymes linear-lanceolate in shape, Bracteoles 
distinct to 4 mm long. Calyx thirteen-nerved, with rotund appendage. Corolla strongly bilater-
ally symmetrical, blue to mauve in colour. Flowers from mid-July. Native to SW and South
Central Europe to 
c
. 1000 m (
1200 m) (Figure 2.7).
Only occasionally cultivated both for its oil, which is of low quality and as an ornamental.
3.
L. lanata
Boiss.
Shrub 50–80 cm, both stems and leaves covered with dense short white woolly indumentum of
branching hairs. Leaves linear to oblanceolate (tapering towards the base). Inflorescence stalk
often branched to 25 cm, spike often interrupted to 8 cm long. Fertile bracts linear-lanceolate
bracteoles up to 6 mm in length, calyx eight-nerved with eight lobes (four large distinct lobes
alternating with four smaller lobes) with elliptic to rotund appendage. Corolla rather small
exceeding calyx by only 2–3 mm, the upper lobes only slightly larger than the lower lobes, dark
purple. Flowers mid-to late July. Native to mountainous areas in South Spain over 2000 m.