Halimium (Dunal) Spach

2. Halimium (Dunal) Spach View in CoL 1

Small shrubs. Leaves opposite, decussate, exstipulate. Sepals 3 or 5, the 2 outer much smaller than the 3 inner. Flowers yellow or white. Style short and straight or absent. Capsule 3-valved; ovules orthotropous.

Literature: E. Guinea, Cistâceas Espanolas (Boi. Inst. For. Inv. Exper. Madrid, No. 71) 11-38. Madrid. 1954.

All European species are found in woods or scrub, or on heaths or sandy ground in fairly dry conditions, and usually on siliceous soils.

1 Leaves ovate to lanceolate, mostly more than 4 mm wide, flat

or with the margins only slightly revolute

2 Leaves of flowering shoots subglabrous, sessile; those of sterile shoots smaller, petiolate, tomentose; inflorescence lax, long-pedunculate 1. ocymoides

2 Leaves all alike

3Sepals 5, covered with peltate scales 5. halimifolium

3Sepals 3, villous or hirsute

4 Flowering branches and pedicels densely tomentose and with patent, purplish, viscid hairs 4. atriplicifolium

4 Flowering branches and pedicels sericeous to villous, with­

out purplish hairs

5 Inflorescence villous, with short hairs; sepals without purple bristles; petals unspotted 2. alyssoides

5 Inflorescence sericeous, with long hairs; sepals often with long, purple bristles; petals sometimes with a brown spot at the base 3. lasianthum

1 Leaves linear, less than 4 mm wide, the margins revolute

6 Flowers yellow; sepals glabrous 9. commutatum

6 Flowers white; sepals villous

7 Stems 15-25 cm; branches tortuous; leaves crowded at the ends of branches 6. umbellatum

7 Stems 25-60 cm; branches straight; leaves distributed along

the branches

8 Branches with dense, whitish indumentum; pedicels unequal; sepals hirsute-villous 7. viscosum

8 Branches sparsely stellate-hairy; pedicels equal; sepals pubescent-villous 8. verticillatum