Achillea fragantissima (Forssk.) Sch.Bip.
Eng.: Lavender cotton. Fre.: Santoline. Ara.: Qaysum.
Evergreen shrub, white-cottony, very aromatic, 0.5-1(1.5) m in height, profusely branched from the base, woody towards the bottom. Leaves small, sessile, somewhat applied to the stem, from ovate to linear-oblong, with serrulate margin, obtuse and shortly mucronate, somewhat thickened, white-cottony at first, subglabrous later. Capitula shortly pedunculate, grouped in (1)2-9 in corymbose terminal inflorescences, lax, flowers all in disc florets, hermaphrodite, yellow. Involucre 3-5 mm long, oblong-ovoid, white-cottony, with several rows of imbricated bracts, narrowly oblong, obtuse, with a clear midrib. Receptacle with persistent interfloral scales. Achenes obovoid, compressed, glabrous, with 2 clear lateral ribs, without pappus.
Flowering:
Almost throughout the year, but preferably from March to October.
Fruiting:
1-2 months after flowering, but usually in summer or autumn.
Habitat:
Stony beds of wadis in desert areas.
Distribution:
Desert areas and arid steppes of Western Asia (between Syria, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula), extending towards the W to Egypt and Libya (Cyrenaica).
Observations:
The other species of the genus, with woody stems but smaller in size –up to 0.4(0.6) m– is A. santolinoides Lag. (Spa.: Milenrama algodonosa. Ara.: Qourt, chouhya). It has upright stems, straight, only slightly branching at the apex, covered with lanuginose hairs, white when young; leaves 2-3 cm, sessile or subsessile, linear as a group but 1-2 pinnatifid, with trifid segments; inflorescence corymbiform, with central flowers in disc florets and external ones in ray florets, with white ligule (1-2 mm). It grows on very diverse terrain, but usually loamy, clayey and relatively humid. SE Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. 2 subspecies have been described: A. santolinoides subsp. santolinoides, with inflorescence in 3-5 capitula, from SE of the Iberian Peninsula, Morocco and western Algeria; and A. santolinoides subsp. wilhelmsii (K.Koch) Greuter (A. wilhelmsii K. Koch), with inflorescence in 5-8 capitula, that grows in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
Conservation status:
Uncommon species but widely distributed. Currently, they are not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) A. santolinoides has been considered as Least Concern (LC).
