Santolina

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Santolina
Santolina rosmarinifolia
Santolina rosmarinifolia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Tribe: Anthemideae
Genus: Santolina
L.
Species

See text

Santolina is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, native to the Mediterranean region. Between five and 18 species are accepted by different authorities.

The species are small evergreen shrubs growing to 10-60 cm tall. The leaves are simple and minute in some species, or pinnate, finely divided in other species, and often densely silvery hairy. The flowers are yellow, produced in dense globose capitulae (flowerheads) 1-2 cm diameter on top of slender stems held 10-25 cm above the foliage.

Santolina species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Bucculatrix santolinella (feeds exclusively on S. chamaecyparissus) and the Coleophora case-bearers C. albicella (recorded on S. chamaecyparissus), C. involucrella (feeds exclusively on Santolina spp) and C. santolinella (feeds exclusively on S. chamaecyparissus).

Selected species

[edit] References

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