Lavandula pedunculata

Lavandula pedunculata, the Spanish or French lavender (a member of the topped-lavender group), is an aromatic evergreen dwarf shrub of the family Lamiaceae growing 30 to 80 cm tall, woody at the base with greyish, much-branched stems. The narrow, linear, grey-green leaves are softly hairy and dotted with oil glands. Its flowers are borne in a dense, squarish, dark purple terminal spike that is crowned by a striking tuft of long, sterile, petal-like bracts of bright violet-purple, held aloft on a conspicuously long stalk that gives the species its name. The whole plant is strongly aromatic. It flowers in spring and early summer. Native to the Iberian Peninsula and parts of the western Mediterranean, it grows on dry, sunny, acidic, stony hillsides, scrub and open woodland, and is grown ornamentally and harvested for its essential oil.