Onosma fruticosa is a bristly, much-branched shrub from Cyprus, growing 30 to 100 cm tall with golden yellow nodding flowers in late winter and spring. It is a sun-loving, drought-tolerant plant of dry, rocky hillsides that needs excellent drainage.
Family
Boraginaceae (Borage family)
Grows as
Shrub
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly, letting the soil dry out fully between waterings; avoid wet roots.
Soil
Free-draining, gritty or limestone-rich soil or mineral mix.
Temperature
10–35 °C; tolerates light frost but protect below about -5 °C
How easy
Moderate
Native range
Cyprus
Climate
subtropical
About
Onosma fruticosa is an erect, much branched shrub, 30-100 cm high, young shoots covered with bristles. Leaves alternate, simple, entire, stalkless, oblanceolate, 7-20 x 2-5 mm, thick, margins revolute, with a mixture of short hairs and long scabridulous bristles. Flowers tubular, nodding, solitary, corolla golden yellow, turning brownish with age. Flowers February-May. Fruit of 4 nutlets.
Where it grows
Dry hillsides with garigue vegetation on limestone and igneous formations at 0-1100 m altitude.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Onosma fruticosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.