Image - Wikimedia / Isidre Blanc
When we walk through the countryside we can find a great variety of species: herbaceous, shrubby and even arboreal, but has it ever happened to you that you have seen one that you would like to have in your garden? I recognize that many, one of them being the Phlomis lychnitis.
It is small, which means it can fit anywhere, produces beautiful yellow flowers, and also grows in limestone soils. A wonderful plant 😉. Let's get to know it.
Origin and characteristics
Image - Flickr / chemazgz
It is a semi-shrub known as candelaria or hare's ear native to the western Mediterranean, where it is found in dry grasslands and scrublands. Reaches a maximum height of 65 centimeters, with erect stems from which opposite leaves sprout, the lower ones being linear to elliptical, and all with the hairy upper part and the woolly underside, leathery. The flowers, which sprout in spring, appear in number from 4 to 10, are up to 2 cm long, and are yellow.
It is very similar to phlomis crinita, but this one has woolly leaves on both sides and are up to 11,5cm long.
What are their cares?
It is not a plant that is widely grown in gardens, but if you like to experiment and you want to have a corner with wild plants, then I will tell you what care you have to provide to the candelaria:
- Location: it must be outside, in full sun.
- Earth:
- Garden: the soil must be limestone (pH 7).
- Pot: you can use universal growing medium, mixed or not with 30% perlite.
- Irrigation: about 2 or 3 times a week in summer, and once or twice a week the rest of the year.
- Subscriber: interesting to pay it with a little bat guano or sheep manure once a month. In case of having it in a pot, use liquid fertilizers following the indications specified on the container.
- Multiplication: by seeds in spring.
- Rusticity: it resists frosts down to -4ºC.
What did you think of the Phlomis lychnitis?