White Mercurial

Appearance

Perennial plant of 20-60 cm, all covered with white woolly hairs. Stems are ligneous or sub-ligneous at the base, persistent, very branchy, with obtusely tetragonal branches. The leaves are white-cottony, thick, very shortly petiolate, elliptical or lanceolate, subacute, entire or with small gaping teeth. The male flowers group in dense clusters forming an interrupted spike, whereas females are solitary or geminate and subsessile. The capsule is 5-7 mm wide, hairy-tomentose. The plant has fairly large, ovoid, brown seeds.

Naming

Mercurial blanca in Spanish.

Distribution

Spain, including Baleares, and Portugal.

Habitat

Dry arid places of the Mediterranean region.