Image of shrubby germander

Description:

Slo.: grmiasti vrednik - Habitat: ruderal ground, poorly maintained garden next to a road, flat terrain, partly sunny, dry place, calcareous ground; elevation 115 m (380 feet); average precipitations ~ 900-1000 mm/year, average temperature 13-15 deg C, sub-Mediterranean phytogeographical region. - Substratum: soil. - Comment: Teucrium fruticans is almost a bush, many times well over 1 m tall. It is the tallest plant of this genus in this region. Its origin is west Mediterranean. However, it has been widely cultivated as an ornamental also in other parts of it, where it escaped gardens. Today it can be found also in the wild, mostly in garrigue and maquis, often near the coast, also on semi ruderal ground. East shore of Adriatic Sea is at the east edge of its occurrence in the wild. All plants of genus Teucrium have very beautifully and characteristically shaped flowers within the mint (called also deadnettle) family (Lamiaceae = Labiatae) in spite of their very diverse habitus (plants range from green, ground spreading species, only a few cm high, to woody trees more than 2 m tall). Corolla looks like it is single lobed, but actually all five petals characteristic for Lamiaceae are grown together in a single large lobe. This is at the same time quite easy and reliable trait for association of plants to this genus. Ref.: (1) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 2., Haupt (2004), p 200. (2) W.K. Rottensteiner, Exkursionsflora Fr Istrien, Verlag Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins fr Krnten (2014), p 572. (3) M. Blamey, C. Grey-Wilson, Wild Flowers of the Mediterranean, A & C Black, London (2005), p 389. (4) I. Schnfelder, P. Schnfelder, Kosmos Atlas Mittelmeer- und Kanarenflora, Kosmos, (2002), p 170.