Daphne oleoides, Schreber

7. D. oleoides Schreber View in CoL , Icon. Descr. Pl. 13 (1766).

Evergreen dwarf shrub up to 50 cm (rarely more), with numerous, usually more or less straight branches; young shoots hairy. Leaves 10-45 x 3-12 mm, obovate, oblanceolate, oblong or elliptical, obtuse or acute, coriaceous, usually more or less villous when young, often glabrescent later, at least on upper surface. Flowers white or cream (rarely with hypanthium and lower surface of sepals deep pink), fragrant, subsessile, in terminal, ebracteate heads of 3-6. Hypanthium 6-8 mm, hairy; sepals 5-7 mm, narrowly triangular, acuminate. Drupe red, pubescent, included in hypanthium till ripe. Usually calcicole. Mountains o f S. Europe. Al Bu Co Cr G r Hs It Ju Sa Si.

Plants from E. Greece (Ewoia) with large, acute, elliptical leaves have been distinguished as D. euboica Rech. fil. , Österr. Bot. Zeitschr. 104: 176 (1957). They differ strikingly from most specimens of D. oleoides from the Balkan peninsula, but can be exactly matched by specimens from E. Spain, where they intergrade with typical plants.

D. kosaninii (Stoj.) Stoj. , Spis. Bälg. Akad. Nauk 37: 137 (1928), from the mountains of S.W. Bulgaria, requires further investigation. It differs from 7 in taller habit, shining, reddish bark, smaller leaves and deep pink flowers with shorter sepals, but plants can be found intermediate in all such characters between the extreme form and D. oleoides . It is possibly the hybrid 7 x 10.