Bastard hare's ear
Phyllis nobla
Family · Rubiaceae · Harmless
The shrub with opposite glossy leaves and clouds of minute green flowers, covering escarpments and levada walls in Madeira and the Canaries.
Walls and rocks · Scrubland · Oak woods · Uplands
Also known asphyllis, Madeira phyllis
How to tell it
A branched subshrub to a metre and a half. Opposite, elongated, leathery leaves with the edge rolled under and membranous stipules between them, the mark of the madder family. Minute yellow-green flowers in loose airy panicles. Dry two-parted fruits. Range: Madeira and the Canaries.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
Traditional medicinal use in Madeira, as an infusion. Traditional use, in the past. It is worth it as an example of a family that on the mainland is nearly all herbaceous and which on the islands produced woody shrubs.