In our beautiful country (Italy), it is easy to encounter on the Tyrrhenian coasts of the peninsula and on the larger islands. In fact, it prefers rocky ridges close to the sea and is also easily found on stony ground and low walls. Called Cineraria maritima, it is a small shrub cultivated for beautiful and decorative silvery-white vegetation. It has succulent, leathery, jagged leaves with a lobed margin that are covered in thick down, silvery grey on the upper page and snow-white on the underside; the leaves in turn cover the stems, which are variously branched and downy. The flowers are small, yellow, daisy-like, grouped in corymbs. Cineraria maritima is a perennial plant cultivated as an annual throughout southern Europe, North Africa and Turkey (and naturalised in North America).
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