Medicinal and aromatic plants – industrial profiles

L. atriplicifolia
Benth. and 
L. erythreae
(Chiov.) Cufud.
The following two species which are native to the southern Arabian Peninsula and
Ethiopia are evidently closely related. They are distinct and instantly recognisable by: their
The taxonomy of the genus 
Lavandula 
L.
31
Figure 2.16 L. bipinnata
– close up of flower, cultivated at Cambridge University Botanic Garden.
Section Chaetostachys. (See Color Plate XI.)

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compact drooping spikes; the single-flowered cymes with bracteoles (none of the other
single flowered species bear bracteoles) in a spiral arrangement on the inflorescence axis;
the papery bracts ovate in shape with reticulate venation; the regular calyx with five 
lobes all equal in size and fifteen-nerved; the subequal stamens (unequal in all other 
Lavandula
species) included within the corolla tube; and particularly the corolla which has five equal 
lobes (often described as star shaped) and are yellow brown in colour. The flowers are 
also described as having a musty odour, which together with their colour suggest they maybe fly
pollinated.
These species have previously been classified within both 
Lavandula
and a separate genus
Sabaudia
Buscal & Musch. They have been included within 
Lavandula
in this treatment on the
basis that these taxa bear the nectary lobes opposite the ovary lobes, the compact spike and sta-
men arrangement which are the main characters defining the genus 
Lavandula
.
Key to species
Spike (1–)1.5–3 cm long, bracts 0.75–1
length of calyx, interior of
corolla tube glabrous, Saudi Arabia and Republic of Yemen  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
L. atriplicifolia
Spike 1–1.5 cm long, bracts 0.5
length of calyx, interior of corolla
tube hairy, Eritrea  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
L. erythreae
31.