Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
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'Vitex agnus-castus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
A deciduous shrub of free, spreading habit; young shoots covered with a minute grey down. Leaves opposite, composed of five to seven radiating leaflets borne on a main-stalk 1 to 21⁄2 in. long, leaflets linear lance-shaped, 2 to 6 in. long, 1⁄4 to 3⁄4 in. wide, tapering gradually towards both ends, not toothed, dark green above, grey beneath with a very close felt; stalks of leaflets 1⁄4 in. or less long. Flowers fragrant, produced during September and October in whorls on slender racemes which are 3 to 6 in. long, sometimes branched, and borne in numbers on the terminal part of the current season’s growth, at the end and in the leaf-axils, the whole forming a large panicle. Corolla violet, tubular, 1⁄3 in. long, with five expanding lobes; stamens four, protruded; calyx funnel-shaped, downy, shallowly lobed. Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 400.
A native of the Mediterranean region, where it grows in river-beds, often with tamarisk and oleander; and of Southwest and Central Asia; in cultivation in Britain by the 16th century. Near London it needs the protection of a wall, given which it is quite safe; a plant lived at Kew on a west wall for over sixty years. It flowers freely in warm seasons, and its crowd of panicles is sometimes very effective. The entire plant has an aromatic, pungent odour.
Synonyms
V. agnus castus var. latifolia (Mill.) Loud.
V. latifolia Mill.
V. macrophylla Hort