Limonium Sinuatum, Wavy-Leaf Sea Lavender

Limonium sinuatum is a Mediterranean species, naturalized along the California coast, from San Diego to San Francisco Bay, and blooming throughout the year. Stems and inflorescence branches are lined with thick wings (three to five), around a quarter of an inch wide, with short, rough, spreading hairs along the margin. Leaves have winged petioles, and the blades are partly divided into rounded, wavy lobes, ciliate along the margins.

Flowers are clustered at the tips of the inflorescence branches, and are subtended by hairy, lobed, spiny, reddish green bracts. The cup-shaped calyces, often the most visible part of the flower, are pink/purple to blue, unlobed, weakly ridged or ribbed, while the corollas are white to pale yellow, five-lobed. Typically only a small percentage of the calyces contain an open corolla at any one time.