Teucrium polium

Woody perennial at the base, from the Lamiaceae family, widely spread around the Mediterranean basin, from the Iberian Peninsula to the Middle East and Central Asia. It colonizes open garrigues, dry lawns, stony slopes, and roadsides on calcareous or marly substrates, in plains as well as in low mountains.

It forms a dense and rounded bush, very branched, 15 to 30 cm in height. The most immediately striking feature is its foliage entirely covered with a dense white-silver tomentum, giving the plant an almost mineral aspect, almost indistinguishable from the surrounding rock in hot weather.

The small leaves are narrow, crenate, rolled at the edges, and the stems are also woolly. The flowers, cream-white to pale pink, are grouped in small dense and globular capitula at the top of the branches.

In its natural habitat, its flowering extends from June to August.

Plant used since Antiquity in traditional Mediterranean medicine, notably as a digestive tonic and febrifuge, although its prolonged consumption is now discouraged due to possible hepatotoxicity.

It requires absolute full sun and very well-drained, poor, and dry soil. Not very hardy under humid continental climates, it is perfectly suited for dry gardens, Mediterranean-style rockeries, and containers in regions with mild winters.