Butterfly Lavender

Lavandula pedunculata — Butterfly Lavender — is a Mediterranean lavender native to Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and western Turkey, closely related to and often confused with French Lavender (Lavandula stoechas). It is distinguished by long, wiry flower stalks that lift the dense flower head well above the gray-green foliage, topped with prominent purple bracts that flutter like butterfly wings — the feature both common names refer to.

It shares French Lavender's need for sharp drainage and full sun, and dislikes wet or heavy soil, especially in winter. In frost-free zones it can self-seed readily around bare soil or gravel mulch, so deadhead spent stalks before seed sets if you want to keep it in check. Prune after the main flush to keep growth compact, but never cut back into old bare wood, which does not regenerate. The essential oil is high in camphor rather than the linalool that makes English Lavender prized for perfumery, so it has traditionally been used more for cleaning products and topical antimicrobial remedies than fragrance.