''Limonium arboreum'' is a species of

sea lavender ''Limonium'' is a genus of 120 flowering plant species. Members are also known as sea-lavender, statice, caspia or marsh-rosemary. Despite their common names, species are not related to the lavenders or to rosemary. They are instead in Plumbag ...

known by the common name tree limonium and siempreviva. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

, where it is a plant of coastal habitat.

Description

This is a tough perennial herb growing from a woody

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

. The thick leaves are oval in shape and up to about 30 centimeters long including the petioles, located in a basal rosette about the stem. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a stiff, branching panicle often exceeding a meter tall bearing large clusters of flowers. The flowers have lavender

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s and smaller white petals. It is also known from coastal southern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, where it is a non-native landscaping escapee which can occasionally be seen growing around beaches and roadsides. Mr George Penny of the Milford Nursery, was the first to cultivate of the ''Statice arborca'' in 1838 in the UK after it was sent from the Canary Islands. It had been sold originally for the high price of 25

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from t ...

Robert Marnock Robert Marnock (1800–1889) was one of the outstanding English horticulturalists and garden designers of the 19th century. He was considered by his contemporaries to be the best exponent of the Gardenesque school of landscape gardening. Life Bef ...

(Editor) It was first published as ''Limonium arboreum'' in Fl. Medit. 22: 65 in 2012.

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment
arboreum Endemic flora of the Canary Islands Garden plants of Europe Drought-tolerant plants {{Caryophyllales-stub