Lavandula dentata L.
toothed lavender
Bushy shrub to c. 1 m high, often grey and with stellate tomentum, strongly aromatic. Lvs sessile, linear to narrow-oblong, sometimes revolute, mostly 2-3 cm long, pinnate with obtuse leaflets to pinnatifid or crenulate, with scattered simple hairs in the stellate tomentum. Peduncle to 30 cm long, much > spike; spike 3-4.5 cm long, broad-cylindric, dense. Fertile bracts 7-11 mm long, broad-ovate, apiculate, purplish; sterile apical bracts 7-10 mm long, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, to nearly elliptic, mauve-blue. Calyx 5-7 mm long, tubular, ± tomentose outside; dorsal appendage broadly reniform to suborbicular, ± mucronate. Corolla 8-10 mm long; tube > calyx by c. 2 mm; limb mauve, somewhat irregular; lobes 1.5-2.5 mm long. Nutlets c. 1.5 mm long, oblong, not mucilaginous when wet.
N.: naturalised around old house sites in 2 former settlements on Rangitoto Id.
Mediterranean, Macaronesia, N.E. Africa 1988
On lava and scoria.
FL Mar-Nov-(Feb).
Toothed lavender is a very common cultigen in lowland areas of the North Id and northern parts of the South Id. It is distinguished from all other spp. in sect. Stoechas by its pinnate or toothed lvs. The common name French lavender is sometimes wrongly applied to this sp.; it should be reserved for L. stoechas.
