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.
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.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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