![]() The names widely used for some of the species, "English lavender", "French lavender" and "Spanish lavender" are all imprecisely applied. The botanic name Lavandula as used by Linnaeus is considered to be derived from this and other European vernacular names for the plants. The English word lavender came into use in the 13th century, and is generally thought to derive from Old French lavandre, ultimately from Latin lavare from lavo (to wash), referring to the use of blue infusions of the plants. However, since lavender cross-pollinates easily, countless variations present difficulties in classification. Thus the current classification includes 39 species distributed across 8 sections (the original 6 of Chaytor and the two new sections of Upson and Andrews), in three subgenera (see table below). Within the Fabricia clade, the subclades correspond to Pterostoechas, Subnudae, and Chaetostachys. Within the Lavandula clade, the subclades correspond to the existing sections but place Dentatae separately from Stoechas, not within it. The Sabaudia group is less clearly defined. The first major clade corresponds to subgenus Lavandula, and the second Fabricia. In addition, there are numerous hybrids and cultivars in commercial and horticultural usage. Subgenus Sabaudia constitutes two species in the southwest Arabian peninsula and Eritrea, which are rather distinct from the other species, and are sometimes placed in their own genus Sabaudia.Subgenus Fabricia consists of shrubs and herbs, and it has a wide distribution from the Atlantic to India.They are found across the Mediterranean region to northeast Africa and western Arabia. It contains the principal species grown as ornamental plants and for oils. ![]() Subgenus Lavandula is mainly of woody shrubs with entire leaves.She believed that the garden varieties were hybrids between true lavender L. There were four species within Stoechas ( Lavandula stoechas, L. However, all the major cultivated and commercial forms resided in the Stoechas and Spica sections. Her sections included Stoechas, Spica, Subnudae, Pterostoechas, Chaetostachys, and Dentatae. The six sections she proposed for 28 species still left many intermediates that could not easily be assigned. One of the first modern major classifications was that of Dorothy Chaytor in 1937 at Kew. By 1826, Frédéric Charles Jean Gingins de la Sarraz listed 12 species in three sections, and by 1848 eighteen species were known. The latter was subsequently transferred to Anisochilus. He recognised only five species in Species Plantarum (1753), L. latifolia), until Linnaeus combined them. From the Middle Ages onwards, the European species were considered two separate groups or genera, Stoechas ( L. The corolla is also tubular, usually with five lobes (the upper lip often cleft, and the lower lip has two clefts). ![]() The flowers may be blue, violet, or lilac in the wild species, occasionally blackish purple or yellowish. Some species produce colored bracts at the tips of the inflorescences. Flowers įlowers are contained in whorls, held on spikes rising above the foliage, the spikes being branched in some species. In most species, the leaves are covered in fine hairs or indumentum, which normally contain essential oils. They are simple in some commonly cultivated species in other species, they are pinnately toothed, or pinnate, sometimes multiple pinnate and dissected. The genus includes annual or short-lived herbaceous perennial plants, and shrub-like perennials, subshrubs or small shrubs. Lavender has been used over centuries in traditional medicine and cosmetics.ĭescription Plant and leaves The most widely cultivated species, Lavandula angustifolia, is often referred to as lavender, and there is a color named for the shade of the flowers of this species. Many members of the genus are cultivated extensively in temperate climates as ornamental plants for garden and landscape use, for use as culinary herbs, and also commercially for the extraction of essential oils. ![]() It is native to the Old World and is found in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and from Europe across to northern and eastern Africa, the Mediterranean, southwest Asia to India. Lavandula (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. ![]()
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