Limonium arborescens (tree sea lavender)

This tree sea lavender, native to the Canary Islands, is one of the largest species in the genus Limonium.

Limonium arborescens at Kew
Limonium arborescens at Kew (Image: RBG Kew)

Species Information

  • Scientific Name: Limonium arborescens (Brouss. ex Webb & Berthel.) Kuntze
  • Common name(s): tree sea lavender, siempreviva arbórea (Spanish)
  • Synonym(s): Statice arborescens Brouss. ex Webb & Berthel.
  • Conservation Status: Near Threatened (NT) according to IUCN Red List criteria.
  • Habitat: Coastal cliffs and deserts.
  • Key Uses: Ornamental.
  • Known hazards: None known.

Taxonomy

  • Class: Equisetopsida
  • Subclass: Magnoliidae
  • Superorder: Caryophyllanae
  • Order: Caryophyllales
  • Family: Plumbaginaceae
  • Genus: Limonium

About this species

There are several shrubby sea lavenders found in the wild in the Canary Islands, where Limonium arborescens is native. It is now rare due to habitat disturbance.

It is often grown in mild gardens and has been introduced as an ornamental in California, where it has naturalised.

Geography & Distribution

Limonium arborescens is native to La Palma, and Tenerife where it grows on cliffs on the northern coast. It is also naturalised on other Canary Islands and in parts of California, on waste ground and roadsides, sand dunes and coastal lagoons.

Description

Limonium arborescens is a large perennial, woody at the base, reaching 2 m high. The rosettes of large, greyish-green leaves can be up to 60 cm across. The flowering stems and branches are narrowly winged. The clusters of flowers appear lavender-purple, but the colour is actually due to numerous purple calyces enclosing small white flowers. Flowers occur from March to October.

Threats & Conservation

The main threats are competition with other species and trampling by livestock. Grazing pressure has decreased recently and does not seem to be a current threat to the species. There is a risk of hybridisation with the native species Limonium fruticans and cultivated species present in surrounding areas. Changes in land use, construction of roads, and competition with exotic species have also been reported as threats.

Uses

Tree sea lavender is cultivated as an ornamental. It can be grown outdoors in Mediterranean climates.

W. J. Hooker on tree sea lavender

Limonium arborescens illustration

Hand-coloured lithograph by W.H. Fitch (as Statice arborea) in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (1840) (Image: RBG Kew)

When tree sea lavender was figured in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine in 1840 (see image, right), the artist used as his model a plant from the conservatory of the Duke of Bedford at Woburn. In the accompanying text, the Director of Kew, William Jackson Hooker, wrote: ‘It is exclusively an inhabitant, according to PB Webb Esq, of a few rocks of Burgado on the coast of Teneriffe, and has been, by that gentleman, introduced to our gardens.’

Around this time, a specimen of the plant ‘covered with large clusters of flowers’, exhibited from the Nursery of Messrs. Luccombe, Pince and Co., was awarded a gold medal ‘an unusual mark of distinction’ by the London Horticultural Society (now the RHS).

Kew's work: tracing history through DNA

Jodrell laboratory at Kew

Jodrell Laboratory at Kew

Kew scientists Dr. Lola Lledó, Professor Mark Chase and Dr Mike Fay of the Jodrell Laboratory, together with colleagues at the Universidad de Alicante, Spain, analysed DNA sequences of Limonium and related genera in order to gain a better understanding of the evolutionary relationships between the species, and as a step towards resolving some of the taxonomic confusion that exists within Limonium and the family Plumbaginaceae. Their research (published in the American Journal of Botany) indicated that Limonium reached the Canary Islands on at least three occasions in the past (the oldest migration having been about 7.5 million years ago) and that the colonizers most likely came from North Africa and the southern Iberian Peninsula. Despite the relatively short distance from the continent, many species on the Canary Islands have evolved separately from their mainland relatives, making the Canary Islands a centre of plant diversity with a high proportion of endemic species (i.e. species found nowhere else) and a priority for conservation.

This species at Kew

Tree sea lavender is growing in the Princess of Wales Conservatory in the dry climate section.

Pressed and dried specimens of Limonium arborescens are held in Kew’s Herbarium, where they are available to researchers from around the world, by appointment. The details of one of these specimens, including an image, can be seen on-line in the Herbarium Catalogue.

Curtis's Botanical Magazine

Curtis's Botanical Magazine Cover

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Editor: Martyn Rix) provides an international forum of particular interest to botanists and horticulturists, plant ecologists and those with a special interest in botanical illustration.

Now well over two hundred years old, the Magazine is the longest running botanical periodical featuring colour illustrations of plants. Each four-part volume contains 24 plant portraits reproduced from watercolour originals by leading international botanical artists. Detailed but accessible articles combine horticultural and botanical information, history, conservation and economic uses of the plants described.

Published for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.
See the Wiley-Blackwell Subscription Information page for rates (for both print and online).


References and credits

Bramwell, D. (1994). Canary Islands, Spain (Autonomous Region). In: Centres of Plant Diversity: A Guide and Strategy for their Conservation. Volume 1: Europe, Africa, South West Asia and the Middle East, eds S. D. Davis, V.H. Heywood & A.C. Hamilton, pp. 89-91. IUCN Publications Unit, Cambridge.

Bramwell, D. & Bramwell, Z. (1984). Wild Flowers of the Canary Islands. Stanley Thornes, Cheltenham.

Dolores Lledó, M., Crespo, M.B., Fay, M.F. & Chase, M.W. (2005). Molecular phylogenetics of Limonium and related genera (Plumbaginaceae): biogeographical and systematic implications. American Journal of Botany 92: 1189-1198

Karis, P.O. (2004). Taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of Limonium sect. Pteroclados (Plumbaginaceae), based on morphological data. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 144: 461-482

Mesa Coello, R., Martín Cáceres, K., Santos Guerra, A., Oval de la Rosa, J.P., Acevedo Rodríguez, A. & Gutiérrez Díaz, A. (2011). Limonium arborescens. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.1. www.iucnredlist.org (accessed on 24 July 2011).

Phillips, R. & Rix, M. (1991). Conservatory and Indoor Plants. Vol. 2. Pan Books, London.

The Plant List (2010). Limonium arborescens. http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-2495548 (accessed 24 July 2011).

Kew Science Editor: Martyn Rix
Kew contributors: Steve Davis
Copyediting: Malin Rivers

While every effort has been taken to ensure that the information contained in these pages is reliable and complete, the notes on hazards, edibility and suchlike included here are recorded information and do not constitute recommendations. No responsibility will be taken for readers’ own actions. Full website terms and conditions.




Follow Kew

Keep up to date with events and news from Kew

Sign up to Kew News

Fact Box


Roscoea capitata

Roscoea capitata

Roscoea capitata is a rare Nepalese plant with pink to purple flowers in a tight head held well above the leaves.

Find out more about this species

Plant & Fungi blogs from Kew

The cool blue seeds of the Malagasy traveller’s tree

by: Wolfgang Stuppy, Millennium Seed Bank blog
06 Mar 2012

Truly blue seeds are about as rare as hens’ teeth.  In the first of his ‘Seed of the Month’ series, Millennium Seed Bank seed morphologist, Wolfgang Stuppy, explains why.

Studying yams in Madagascar

by: Tim Harris, Herbarium blog
27 Jan 2012

Kew and Feedback Madagascar are collaborating to look at the preferences for different species of edible yam in Madagascan rural communities. Find out about the latest research being undertaken as part of Kew's work in Madagascar. 

Conservators care for tapa cloth at Kew

by: Daniel Barter & Cristina Liria, Economic Botany blog
15 Aug 2011

Two conservation students from Camberwell College of Arts have spent three weeks surveying barkcloth specimens from the Pacific.

Kew News Alert

All Kew News

See your favourite reasons to visit