Authors: L.
to ascending shrublet 30cm or more across. Leaves linear to elliptic or ovate, grey downy beneath, green or grey-tomentose above, l-3cm in length. Flowers 8-16mm across, yellow, in cymes of up to five or more, mid-spring to late summer. Central and southern Europe including the British Isles (rare). A very variable species in habit and flower size. Several subspecies have been described but they tend to run into each other in the wild. Flatly mat-forming subspecies are canescens (leaves lanceolate and strigose above), laevigatum (leaves glabrous or almost above, northern England only), stevenii (robust habit, largest flowers - 1.2-1.6cm), piloselloides (leaves ovate), canum (leaves narrow), somewhat rosetted at the shoot tips.
