Lavandula L.

Genus composed of about 47 species, mainly in subtropical and temperate areas of central-western Palaearctic, reaching in the S from the Cape Verde Islands to India. In North Africa it is represented by 12 species, distributed mainly through the Mediterranean area but also with some Saharan species. In general, they are plants with woody stems, at least at the base (some, like L. multifida, tend to be herbaceous). All of them can be divided into 2 groups, one with entire or dentate leaves, where the larger species are found, and another with deeply divided leaves, mainly herbaceous but ± woody, at least at the base of the stems of the oldest specimens. From the last group we describe here one of the largest species, C. coronopifolia, the rest of these small species with deeply divided leaves are:

A similar species is L. pubescens Decne. (Ara. Egypt: Atan), up to 80(100) cm in height, easily differentiated by its branchlets covered in erect hairs, whitish, unbranched, glandular, with leaves bipinnatisect and tripinnatisect, and dense spikes 3-8 cm in length. It grows mainly in the countries around the Red Sea, the eastern parts of Egypt and Sudan, to Eritrea in Africa, and in Asia from Jordan to Yemen. Another species with a wider distribution is L. multifida L., common in the western Mediterranean and in North Africa from Morocco to Egypt; up to 80(120) cm in height, with stems covered with whitish branched hairs and spikes simple or branched at the base, 1.5-8 cm long, with 7-15 verticillasters of 2 flowers each, with blue-violet corolla, the lower verticillaster sometimes distanced from others; found in rocky areas and grasslands in arid or semiarid zones. Another species with indumentum with branched hairs is L. antineae Maire [L. pubescens (Maire) Miré & Quézel, comb. inval.] (Tamahaq: Edghé), a subshrub up to 80 cm in height, endemic to the mountainous areas of the Algerian central Sahara; it differs from the previous species by being more aromatic, with a more dense foliage, more divided leaves (with the first 3-4 segments in turn divided into smaller lobes, and the terminal 2-3 pairs of segments entire), dense spikes and blue flowers. Very similar to this last species (so much so that it was considered a subspecies) is L. saharica Upson & Jury (L. antineae f. stenonota Maire), that in essence can be differentiated by its more open branchlets, that form a 45° angle, and by having all segments of the leaf usually entire. It grows in central and eastern Sahara (Algeria, Libya, Chad, Egypt and Sudan).

Morocco has a high diversity of species of this genus. As well as the species listed above, there are a further 4 endemic species with deeply divided leaves. L. maroccana Murb. and L. rejdalii Upson & Jury have densely tomentose stems, but without branched hairs, with short spikes and wide bracts, with an acuminate appendage in the former species, and longer spikes and ovate-lanceolate to ovate bracts and clearly acuminate appendage in the latter species; L. maroccana grows in plains and low mountains of the Anti-Atlas, mid Atlantic Morocco and High Atlas; L. rejdalii is only known from the region of Tafraout, in the Anti-Atlas. L. mairei Humbert and L. tenuisecta Ball both have glabrous or laxly tomentose stems, with the former reaching up to 1 m in height and with abundant glandular hairs and long spikes (2)4-9(15) cm, while the latter barely reaches 50 cm in height and presents few or no glandular hairs, and rather shorter spikes 2-4(6) cm long.

L. multifida israre but widely distributed species. The other species have smaller distribution areas but in principle none are considered threatened. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Updated by: B. Valdés & J. Charco.