Globularia sarcophylla
18th July
I was given a rooted cutting just at the time when I was trying to cut back on the number of wonderful things staggering along in small pots.
It was welcome but a little inconvenient.
It grew well for a couple of years during which time I found out a little more about it. Endemic to Gran Canaria, it is a small sub-shrub with globular heads of greying blue flowers.
It grows in a very restricted area in the mountains, in rock cracks and scree. The total population is thought to be a few hundred plants (366 have been reported)
and the species is thought to be vulnerable to land slips. Monitoring, ex situ conservation and reintroduction are all being tried to secure it.
My little cutting was therefore quite important and I had just started to appreciate that when a "wintery event" killed it stone dead.
Unfortunate is the term, I think.