Sideritis lasiantha

Sideritis lasiantha is a low, woody-based perennial subshrub of the Lamiaceae endemic to the arid mountains of southeastern Spain, typically forming compact, rounded cushions 15-40 cm tall and across. The whole plant is densely covered with soft white woolly hairs that give it a silvery-grey appearance and reduce water loss in its semi-arid limestone habitats. Stems arise numerously from a woody base, are quadrangular and tomentose, and become semi-lignified in their lower parts. Leaves are opposite, oblong-elliptic to obovate, 1-3 cm long, with shallowly crenate to nearly entire margins, sessile or shortly petiolate, and densely lanate on both surfaces. The inflorescence is an elongated terminal spike of several distant verticillasters, each subtended by leafy, often spinescent floral bracts that are broader than the cauline leaves and conspicuously hairy. Flowers are tubular and two-lipped, 9-13 mm long, pale yellow with a flat upper lip and a three-lobed lower lip, partly concealed by the persistent woolly calyx with five subequal spinose teeth. The four stamens are included within the corolla tube. Nutlets are small, smooth, ovoid and brown. The species grows on dry rocky calcareous slopes and gypsiferous outcrops between roughly 600 and 1800 m elevation.