Ground-pine germander
Teucrium pseudochamaepitys
Family · Lamiaceae · Irritating
The germander with leaves split into fine needle-like strips, giving it the look of a little pine, and white flowers large for the plant's size. It grows on dry limestone and goes unnoticed until it flowers.
Scrubland · Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Uplands
Also known asfalse ground-pine
How to tell it
Leaves divided into three to five very narrow, almost thread-like segments, unlike any other germander's. White flowers, large, with no upper lip, as throughout the genus. A hairy four-angled stem.
What it is confused with
Cat thyme germander
Teucrium capitatum
The leaf: entire and narrow, felted, on cat thyme germander; split into very fine strips here. And the flower: cream heads there, large loose white flowers here.
Open sheet →What it is for
A bitter of traditional use in Spain, with the same warning as all germanders: the genus has compounds linked to liver injury with prolonged use.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.