Button-shaped flowers are held aloft the domes of this cotton lavender in the Mediterranean Beds.
Native to the Mediterranean, the genus Santolina contains 18 species which thrive in dry rocky habitats. All species have aromatic, alternate, pinnate leaves and clusters of tiny flowers held in button-like heads. Santolina chamacyparissus var. neapolitana (syn. S. pinnata ssp. neapolitana) has a rounded, dome-like habit, reaching 75cm in height. A member of the daisy family (Asteraceae), the flowerhead is a composite of many small individual flowers, and here the flowerheads comprise only tubular disc florets and no ray florets surrounding the composite, as is seen in many other daisies.