Micromeria herpyllomorpha Webb & Berthelot (1844: 72)

Puppo, Pamela & Meimberg, Harald, 2015, New species and new combinations in Micromeria (Lamiaceae) from the Canary Islands and Madeira, Phytotaxa 230 (1), pp. 1-21 : 11-13

Micromeria herpyllomorpha Webb & Berthelot (1844: 72)

≡ Micromeria varia Bentham (1834: 374) f. herpyllomorpha (Webb & Berthelot) Christ (1888: 133) ; Satureja herpyllomorpha (Webb & Berthelot) Briquet in Engler & Prantl (1896: 299). Lectotype (designated by P. Pérez 1978: 238):— SPAIN. Canary Islands, “In ins. Palma”, Barker-Webb s.n. (FI000222!, labeled “ Thymus herpylloides Nob. ”).

= Micromeria serpyllomorpha Webb, Bentham in De Candolle (1848: 217) ; erroneous for M. herpyllomorpha .

= Micromeria perezii Bolle (1860: 282) ; Satureja perezii (Bolle) Briquet in Engler & Prantl (1896: 299). Holotype:— SPAIN. Canary Islands, “In Caldera ins. Palmae”, Sep, Bolle (B†).

Subshrub up to 70 cm high, highly branched; branches persisting, basal parts of branches shedding bark, puberulous, strigose or velutinous, younger parts villous. Leaves sessile or inconspicuously petiolated; blades herbaceous 5–11 × 1–4 mm, green, blades linear or ovate-lanceolate, flat or slightly revolute, pilose, strigose, villous or lanuginose on both sides. Cymes arranged throughout the upper part of the branches; sessile or with peduncles ca. 1 mm long. Calyx green to purple, somewhat strigose, 2.5–3.5 mm long, calyx apices subulate or lanceolate. Corolla white to pink or purple, 3–7 mm long, exerted, straight or slightly curved downwards. Anthers purple, slightly exerted. Style exerted.

Notes: —This species presents ample morphological variation, presumably associated with the variation in humidity and elevation present in the different localities where it grows. The typical M. herpyllomorpha grow in open areas, especially in the laurisilva and fayal-brezal ecological zones. At lower elevations, the plants present sparsely leaves and larger internodes while specimens at the highest elevations are smaller in size and densely pubescent.