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Where do lavenders come from?
Joan Head
Editor, The Lavender Bag
From The Lavender Bag 12 (November 1999)
The natural distribution of lavender growing wild clusters around the
Mediterranean area, with outposts in India and over to the west in the
Atlantic Islands. The Mediterranean area in this context includes countries
in mainland Europe (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece)) and the
other side of the sea across North Africa (Morocco and Algeria). It also
includes countries such as Turkey, Syria and Egypt at the eastern end
of the Mediterranean. The distribution extends down through tropical NE
Africa, encompassing Ethiopia and Somalia, and over to the western escarpments
of Saudi Arabia, the Yemen, Oman and the most southerly parts of Iran.
A separate Section appears in India with just two species in it.
Lavender occurs also on the temperate Atlantic Islands (the Azores, Madeira,
the Canaries) and the subtropical islands of Cape Verde, off the Senegal
coast of western Africa. Another island that can boast wild lavender species
is Socotra, off the Horn of Africa. Finally, several of the Mediterranean
islands, the Balearics, Crete and Cyprus, are host to lavender colonies.
Some of these areas are commonly visited holiday spots; others are in
the war-torn parts of the world and therefore difficult to access. Of
course, lavender is cultivated in many other parts of the world, especially
for garden use. Moreover, lavender farming seems to be most popular in
countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United States, where
lavender is not found in the wild.
At present, six botanical Sections are described in the literature though
current research indicates that one or more extra Sections might be raised
when the description of further species and their classification is completed.
Meanwhile, the six Sections currently accepted are as follows:
- Section Lavandula (3 species, C and SW Europe)
- Section Dentata (1 species, Mediterranean, W Arabia and Ethiopia)
- Section Stoechas (2-3 species, Mediterranean and Madeira)
- Section Pterostoechas (14-15 species, Mediterranean, N Africa,
Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Madeira, W Arabia and Iran)
- Section Subnuda (8 species, S Arabia, Socotra and Somalia)
- Section Chaetostachys (2 species, C and SW India)
- The lavenders of Section Lavandula are found in C and
SW Europe and include the much-loved lavenders so familiar to gardeners
and garden designers. There are in fact three species in this section:
L. angustifolia, L. latifolia and L. lanata. L.
angustifolia cultivars are widely grown in many parts of the world
and are often referred to as English lavender, though as we see from
the distribution map in this issue its origins
are not at all English. L. latifolia is sometimes grown as an
ornamental and it is a parent (together with L. angustifolia)
of a commercially important hybrid, L. x intermedia. Both
L. angustifolia and L. x intermedia are used for
oil distillation, the former producing the sweetest and most sought-after
oil. There are many cultivars of L. angustifolia and of L.
x intermedia to be seen in nurseries and garden centres and more
of these lavenders are sold in the UK than of any other type. L.
lanata, native to Spain, is cultivated as an ornamental but can
be difficult to maintain in damper climates, tending to rot at the base.
It is noteworthy as having the deepest violet-coloured corolla in this
Section. There are some interesting hybrids of L. lanata and
L .angustifolia, notably L.'Sawyers' and L.'Silver
Frost'. The leaves of such hybrids tend to reflect the silvery foliage
of L. lanata; the flowers, while more variable in colour, also
show the depth of coloration associated with lanata. In the case
of 'Sawyers', the flowerhead is exceptionally long and pointed and of
a very deep blue.
- L. dentata, the only species in Section Dentata,
is one of the more widely dispersed lavenders in the wild. L dentata
var. dentata appears in S and C Spain, the Balearic Islands and
North Africa (Algeria and Morocco), reappearing in Arabia (Saudi Arabia,
Yemen). White and pink-flowered forms are found in Arabia and North
Africa. L. dentata var. candicans, (a beautiful silver-leafed
variety) is also found in North Africa. This variety is widely used
in parts of Australia as an ornamental, forming hedges there up to five
feet (1.5 metres) in height.
- The lavenders in Section Stoechas are growing in popularity
as cultivated plants. Their tendency to hybridise has led to the naming
of many crosses in cultivation. There are two species. The first, L.
stoechas is subdivided into numerous subspecies, one of which, L.
stoechas subsp. pedunculata, is regarded by some botanists
as a species in its own right. However, it is more usually described
as a subspecies and this description is retained here.
L. stoechas is found widely across the Mediterranean area with various
subspecies in W and NE Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, N Africa, Madeira
and the Azores. The subspecies pedunculata is found only in C
Spain and Portugal. The second species in this Section is L. viridis,
found in S Portugal and SW Spain. This unusual species has a particularly
distinctive scent; in cultivation it crosses readily with L. stoechas,
the hybrids usually retaining the strong scent. L. viridis is
an unusual lavender in that the colour of its coma bracts (flaring out
from the top of the inflorescence) vary from white to cream (almost
yellow in some plants, hence the term " the yellow lavender") to green.
All the lavenders in this Section are distinguished by the coloured
coma bracts atop the flowerhead.
- Section Pterostoechas contains some of the most beautiful
of the lavenders and is widely spread across N Africa, the Mediterranean
basin, W Arabia, Iran and the Atlantic islands (Madeira, Canaries and
Cape Verde). All lavenders in this Section are frost tender, current
research indicating about 15 species. Perhaps the most widely known
in cultivation in the UK are those that are found in the Canaries. These
are L. pinnata, mainly confined to Lanzarote but also found in
Gran Canaria and Madeira; L .canariensis , found in all the islands;
L. buchii (of which there are three varieties), native to Tenerife;
and L minutolii, found in Gran Canaria, with another variety
in Tenerife. All these species have very attractive, winged flowerheads
and individually distinctive leaf shapes. An added attraction is their
tendency to flower through the winter months.
L .multifida, from N Africa and the W Mediterranean, a powerfully-scented
plant, is well known outside its natural habitat - it has a sprawling
habit, is covered with dense hairs and has a curiously twisted appearance
to the flower spike caused by the spiral arrangement of the flowers.
As with other lavenders in this Section, it hybridises easily in cultivation.
Other North African lavenders include L. maroccana and L.
mairei, both known only to Morocco. L. coronopifolia is also
found in North Africa but has a very wide distribution, described by
Tim Upson in his article in an earlier edition of The Lavender Bag
3, stretching from the Cape Verde islands over North Africa through
the Middle East and into Iran. Also found in Cape Verde , indeed it
grows only in these islands, is L.rotundifolia. This lavender
has rounded, dissected leaves and pink flowerheads, and grows with a
lax, almost prostrate habit. L.pubescens is another Arabian lavender.
It is distributed around the Red Sea, Egypt, Israel, Syria, Jordan into
Saudi Arabia and the Yemen. It grows well in cultivation and has a particularly
attractive sky blue flower.
- Section Subnuda contains 8 species to date which are
distributed through S Arabia, Socotra and Somalia. Three of these are
mentioned here. L. subnuda, is a pretty lavender but difficult
to maintain in cultivation. Its main attraction is its unusual leaf
shape and the delicate flowerheads, again blue rather than purple. It
is found only in Oman. L. dhofarensis is found in the Dhofar
region of S Oman and was described as recently as 1985 by A.G.Miller
of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (two subspecies are recognised).
This lavender grows quite happily in cultivation in the UK. It is very
floriferous and sets copious seed. L. aristibracteata, another
new species described by Miller, is a very stylish plant. He describes
it as "known only from the Surudi Hills in northern Somalia" and it
is striking for its leaf form, almost fleshy looking, and its curious
flowerhead with long thorn-like fertile bracts which overshoot the calyx
giving the flower a thistle appearance. This is the lavender head I
chose for The Lavender Bag logo and readers see it on any correspondence
from me.
- Two species form Section Chaetostachys and these lavenders
are rarely seen in cultivation. They are the Indian lavenders L.
bipinnata and L. gibsonii. L .bipinnata is difficult
to cultivate, keeling over without warning overnight. It has very attractive
flowers, white, flushed blue in the throat of each corolla. The leaves
cluster at intervals along the stem making it look quite spiny.
Currently described lavender species are listed under Classification,
or can be found in The Lavender Bag 11.
References
- Chaytor, D.A. (1937) A taxonomic study of the genus Lavandula
Journal of the Linnean Society - Botany, 51:153-204
- Miller, A.G. (1985) The genus Lavandula in Arabia and Tropical
NE Africa
Notes RBG Edinb. 42(3):503-528
- Upson, T. and Jury, S. (1995) In search of Moroccan lavenders
The Lavender Bag 3: 15-22
- Upson, T. and Jury, S. (1996) Notes on the Canary Island lavenders
The Lavender Bag 5: 15-19
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