Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Holly-flax - Santolina chamaecyparissus   L.
Members of Asteraceae:
Only member of Santolina in NC.
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Section 6 » Order Asterales » Family Asteraceae
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AuthorL.
DistributionCollected twice in 1951 in the Mountains and in the Sandhills. Other collections from Mecklenburg and Orange counties are from cultivated plants.

Native of Mediterranean Europe. Scattered in eastern U.S.
AbundanceVery rare. Perhaps no longer extant.
HabitatRoadsides.
PhenologyOur plants flowered and fruited May-June.
IdentificationHighly distinctive. Plants are semi-woody, often with many branches on lower parts and forming a bushy aspect. Leaves are alternate, linear, with many short blunt lobes on margins (rather fernlike in aspect). Leaves and upper parts of stem white tomentose or lanate with very short hairs. Heads are silitary atop long peduncles raised above the leaves, disc florets only, yellow.
Taxonomic Comments
Other Common Name(s)Lavender-cotton.
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
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