Tomillo sapero

Appearance

It is a grayish bush, woody at the base, low-growing, pubescent, with erect or oblique stems. It has leaves, linear, arranged in fascicles, and provided with hydathodes or aquiferous stomata around which salt precipitates in times of water stress for the plant. Its flowers are pentamerous, with a whitish or pinkish corolla, with six stamens; they are arranged in terminal, corymbiform leafy cymes. Its fruits are capsules dehiscent by the valves, with a persistent calyx.

Distribution

NW Africa and SE Spain (Alicante, Almería, Granada and Murcia).

Habitat

Ecologically it is resistant to moderate salinity conditions; common in soils rich in gypsum.
Found in salines, rocks, brackish depressions, and maritime sands.