Bombycilaena erecta

An annual of the Asteraceae family, Bombycilaena erecta is a small plant of open and arid environments around the Mediterranean basin, from the Iberian Peninsula to Central Asia, through the Middle East and North Africa. It colonizes dry grasslands, stony wastelands, roadsides, and exposed limestone rocky areas, on poor, dry, and often compacted soils, from sea level to submontane levels.

It forms a small upright and branched tuft from the base, reaching 5 to 20 cm in height, entirely covered with a very dense white woolly felt that gives it an immediately recognizable cottony appearance. The leaves, small and spatula-shaped, are drowned in this silvery white fleece that also envelops the stems and capitula.

The capitula are tiny, grouped in tight glomerules at the top of the branches, and so densely entangled in the white wool that they seem to form small compact cottony balls, making the actual flowers almost invisible to the naked eye.

In its natural habitat, its flowering extends from May to July depending on latitude and altitude.

This exceptional woolly coating constitutes a remarkable adaptation to xericity: it limits transpiration and reflects intense solar radiation. The plant reseeds itself spontaneously in well-drained and sunny conditions, and requires no watering once established.