Dried lavender flower

Description

Dried lavender flower : Lavender flower , (genus Lavandula), genus of about 30 species of plants in the mint family (Lamiaceae), native to countries bordering the Mediterranean. Lavender species are common in herb gardens for their fragrant leaves and attractive flowers. The plants are widely cultivated for their essential oils, which are used to scent a variety of products. English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), French lavender (L. stoechas), and woolly lavender (L. lanata) are among the most widely cultivated species.

Lavenders are small evergreen shrubs with gray-green hoary linear leaves. The purple flowers are sparsely arranged on spikes at the tips of long bare stalks and produce small nutlet fruits. The fragrance of the plant is caused by shining oil glands imbedded among tiny star-shaped trichomes (plant hairs) that cover the flowers, leaves, and stems. The plants in cultivation do not usually produce seed, and propagation is accomplished by cuttings or by dividing the roots.

The genus includes annual or short-lived herbaceous perennial plants, and shrub-like perennials, subshrubs or small shrubs. Leaf shape is diverse across the genus. They are simple in some commonly cultivated species; in other species, they are pinnately toothed, or pinnate, sometimes multiple pinnate and dissected. In most species, the leaves are covered in fine hairs or indumentum, which normally contain essential oils.

Flowers are borne in whorls, held on spikes rising above the foliage, the spikes being branched in some species. Some species produce colored bracts at the tips of the inflorescences. The flowers may be blue, violet or lilac in the wild species, occasionally blackish purple or yellowish. The calyx is tubular. The corolla is also tubular, usually with five lobes (the upper lip often cleft, and the lower lip has two clefts).

Lavender is produced as a wild flower and cultivated in some countries. But in Iran it is cultivated only, it is also cultivated in an area of less than ten hectares.Lavender cultivation has been done in recent years for medicinal, cosmetic, health and decorative uses in the country. Lavender in Iran has two perennial and woody species, L. stricta and L. sublepidota, which grow in the southern regions of Iran, and L. sublepidot is the exclusive species of Iran. for more information please read Iran lavender specification .