Common Name: whitebrush

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Shrub

General: Slender fragrant shrub 2-3 m tall; bark is pale and wood is yellow; stems slender, gray, 4-angled, canescent.

Leaves: Opposite, often with a fascicle of smaller leaves in the axils, on short petioles 1-3 mm long; blades oblong to elliptic, 5-25 mm long, bases attenuate into the petioles, margins entire to denticulate, surfaces scabrous-strigose and dull-green above, strigillose beneath.

Flowers: Small, whitish or bluish, and vanilla-scented, in open, leafy panicles composed of many slender, elongate spikes or spike-like racemes; corollas bilabiate and somewhat irregular; calyces 3 mm long, tubular-campanulate, deeply 4-lobed, and conspicuously villous.

Fruits: Schizocarp of 2-4 nutlets

Ecology: Found in rocky or gravelly hills, sandy or limestone soils, and arroyos, around 3,000-4,000 ft (1219 m); flowers April-September.

Distribution: s AZ to w TX; south through MEX to S. Amer.

Notes: This vanilla-scented shrub is uncommon in the US, hitting its northern limit in the extreme southern part of Arizona near the Ruby Road; in Dona Ana County on the southern border of New Mexico; and neighboring Texas. It is similar to the more common Aloysia wrightii with its slender graceful stems, small oval leaves, and many racemes of small flowers with hairy calyces; however, A. wrightii has gray-green leaves which are distinctly white-tomentose underneath and have regularly and obviously toothed margins. A. gratissima has olive-green leaves which can be a bit hairy underneath but are not densely white-tomentose, with mostly smooth margins which can have small, irregular teeth.

Ethnobotany: Used topically to treat wounds in South America.

Etymology: Aloysia is named in honor of Maria Louisa Teresa, 1751-1819, Princess of Parma and wife of King Carlos IV of Spain; gratissima means very pleasing.

Synonyms: Aloysia lycioides, Verbena gratissima, Lippia lycioides

Editor: LCrumbacher2012, AHazelton 2015