''Sideritis macrostachyos'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

in the family

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savo ...

, native to north and north-eastern

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the Archipelago, archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitant ...

in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Mo ...

Description

''Sideritis macrostachyos'' has branched woody stems. The thick, wrinkled leaves are

petiolate Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, a ...

(stalked) and crenulate in outline. The upper leaves are oval, the lower ones very large and more rounded. The upper surface of the leaves is green, and ranges from pubescent (softly hairy) in the upper leaves to almost glabrous (smooth) in the lower leaves. The lower surface of the leaves is white with cottony down. The flowers are arranged in terminal

spikes The SPIKES protocol is a method used in clinical medicine to break bad news to patients and families. As receiving bad news can cause distress and anxiety, clinicians need to deliver the news carefully. By using the SPIKES method for introducing a ...

which are large, stiff and tufted in appearance. The individual flowers are sessile and arranged in tight whorls separated by small bracts. The seeds are small, brown and rounded. File:Sideritis macrostachys Tenerife 3.jpg, Flowers

Taxonomy

''Sideritis macrostachyos'' was first described by

Jean Poiret Jean Poiret, born Jean Poiré (17 August 1926 – 14 March 1992), was a French actor, director, and screenwriter. He is primarily known as the author of the original play '' La Cage aux Folles''. Early career Poiret was born in Paris, and f ...

in 1811. The epithet ''macrostachyos'' is correct as published by Poiret; ''stachyos'' is an adjective derived from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, whose masculine and feminine forms both end in ''-os''. In some sources, it has been wrongly changed to ''macrostachya'', or to ''macrostachys''.

References

macrostachyos Flora of the Canary Islands Plants described in 1811 {{Lamiaceae-stub