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Phlomis caballeroi Pau

Phlomis purpurea subsp. caballeroi (Pau) Rivas-Mart.

Spa.: Matagallo.   Fre.: Phlomis.

Evergreen shrub, hermaphrodite, up to 1.5 m in height, erect, ramose. Stems and old branches with greyish-brown bark. Young branches green, although they appear slightly whitish because they are covered with a dense lanate tomentum of whitish hairs. Leaves (3-9 × 0.8-3.5 cm), ovate or lanceolate, obtuse, rounded or cordate at the base, with long petioles (1-4 cm), margin subentire or with wide, obtuse and shallow teeth. Leaf blade very rugose, with very pronounced midrib on the underside, and deep green and glabrescent on the upper side and whitish-cottony on the underside (due to being covered with whitish stellate hairs). Inflorescence in false verticils, on the axils of upper leaves. Flowers light purple, pinkish, large (22-27 mm). Calyx tubular-campanulate, with 5 obtuse teeth, equal in length and width, each ending in a mucro shorter than the tooth, which is partially hidden in the tomentum. Corolla with 2 very unequal lips; the upper lip almost covering the rest of the flower in the shape of a helmet; the lower lip is divided into 3 lobes. Stamens 4, hidden under the upper lip. Fruit very small, dark, included in the persistent calyx.