Achillea fragantissima (Forssk.) Sch.Bip.
Eng.: Lavender cotton. Fre.: Santoline. Ara.: Qaysum.
Evergreen shrub, white-cottony, very aromatic, 0.5-1(1.5) m in height, profusely branched from the base, woody towards the bottom. Leaves small, sessile, somewhat applied to the stem, from ovate to linear-oblong, with serrulate margin, obtuse and shortly mucronate, somewhat thickened, white-cottony at first, subglabrous later. Capitula shortly pedunculate, grouped in (1)2-9 in corymbose terminal inflorescences, lax, flowers all in disc florets, hermaphrodite, yellow. Involucre 3-5 mm long, oblong-ovoid, white-cottony, with several rows of imbricated bracts, narrowly oblong, obtuse, with a clear midrib. Receptacle with persistent interfloral scales. Achenes obovoid, compressed, glabrous, with 2 clear lateral ribs, without pappus.
Flowering:
Almost throughout the year, but preferably from March to October.
Fruiting:
1-2 months after flowering, but usually in summer or autumn.
Habitat:
Stony beds of wadis in desert areas.
Distribution:
Desert areas and arid steppes of Western Asia (between Syria, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula), extending towards the W to Egypt and Libya (Cyrenaica).
Observations:
The other species of the genus, with woody stems but smaller in size –up to 0.4(0.6) m– is A. santolinoides Lag. (Spa.: Milenrama algodonosa. Ara.: Qourt, chouhya). It has upright stems, straight, only slightly branching at the apex, covered with lanuginose hairs, white when young; leaves 2-3 cm, sessile or subsessile, linear as a group but 1-2 pinnatifid, with trifid segments; inflorescence corymbiform, with central flowers in disc florets and external ones in ray florets, with white ligule (1-2 mm). It grows on very diverse terrain, but usually loamy, clayey and relatively humid. SE Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. 2 subspecies have been described: A. santolinoides subsp. santolinoides, with inflorescence in 3-5 capitula, from SE of the Iberian Peninsula, Morocco and western Algeria; and A. santolinoides subsp. wilhelmsii (K.Koch) Greuter (A. wilhelmsii K. Koch), with inflorescence in 5-8 capitula, that grows in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
Conservation status:
Uncommon species but widely distributed. Currently, they are not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.