Vitex agnus-castus L.

Spice Detail flowers Flowers In the field

Family: VERBENACEAE

Genus: Vitex

Catalan common name: Agnocast. Alís. Aloc. Arbre de Sant Josep. Herba de la castedat. Pebre bord. Ximbla.

Spanish common name: Gatillo casto. Hierba de la castidad. Pimentera. Zausgatillo.

Province distribution: Alacant. Balearic Islands. Barcelona. Castelló. Girona. Tarragona. València.

Distribution in the islands: Mallorca. Menorca. Ibiza.

General distribution (Phytogeography): Mediterranean

Uses and properties: Aphrodisiac. Medicinal.

Plants protected by law: Balearic Catalogue.

IUCN Category: LCLeast concern

Flowering time: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Life-forms: Macrophanerophyte.

Habitats: Garden plants. Non-saline wetlands (intermittent watercourses, streams, artesian wells, ditches). Humid soils and torrents.

Characteristics: The chaste is a small tree, easy to recognize by its palmate leaves, with 5 to 7, very stylized lobes, green in colour on the obverse and greyish on the reverse. Flowers are blue in colour and emerge during the summer. Chaste trees live in moist soils and torrent beds, often in these latter just before the empty into the sea.