Sea lavender is a tall tough evergreen perennial with large clusters of tiny mauve and white flowers. Although it is native to the Canary Islands, limonium is considered to be a rare and vulnerable species in its native habitat. It blooms nearly all year round in frost free coastal climates and the blooms can be kept for arrangements of dried flowers.
The name for the genus comes from the Latin word limonion used by Pliny for a wild plant which came from the Ancient Greek word leimon meaning meadow. Originally named “Statice perezii” by Otto Stapf, an Austrian botanist who became the herbarium curator at Kew, Stapf gave it this name presumably to honor Dr. George V. Perez, who sent seeds of several different Statice species to Kew in 1902.