Limonium Mill.

Statice

Greek leimon—meadow, referring to the meadow-like salt pans where these plants often grow.

Shrubs, subshrubs or occasionally annual herbs. Leaves entire or lobed and mostly in a basal rosette. Flowers in branched clusters or spikelets with scaly bracts. Within the terminal 3 bracts are small groups (spikelets) of 1-5 flowers. Sepals funnel-shaped, papery, often coloured, persistent. Petals fused at the base. Stamens joined to the base of the petals. Styles 5; mostly spring and summer. Fruit a small capsule enclosed in the persistent sepals.

L. dumosum is a name occasionally used but of no botanical standing.

Cut-flower everlastings generally known as Statice. Roots of some species used in tanning, others in fertility control.

Leaves mostly in basal rosettes; flowers in 1-sided papery clusters (everlasting); sepals 10-ribbed and funnel-shaped.

About 350 species cosmopolitan: mostly coastal and arid saline northern hemisphere, Mediterranean to Asia (Australia has 2 endemic and 5 naturalised species).

Luteyn (1976).

The range of species offered by nurseries varies from year to year. The key should be used as a guide only; it includes several naturalised species and other rarely cultivated species that are not described in the text.

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Plumbaginaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

Hero image
kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Magnoliopsida
superorder     Caryophyllanae
order      Caryophyllales
family       Plumbaginaceae
Higher taxa
Subordinate taxa
species         Limonium arborescens (Brouss.) Kuntze
species         Limonium australe (R.Br.) Kuntze
species         Limonium sinuatum (L.) Mill.