Lavender cotton

Santolina chamaecyparissus is a flowering plant in the Asteraceae family, known by the common name lavender cotton. It is native to the western and central Mediterranean. The species was first described by Linnaeus in 1753. Discussions in botanical literature have addressed the selection of type material, with multiple scholars proposing different specimens. Marchi & D'Amato suggested type material from three Clifford sheets, while Arrigoni and Humphries later proposed different specimens, with Arrigoni's choice being the earliest. The plant is distributed across several European countries, including France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey.