Olive Herb, Grey Rosemary, Cotton Lavender or the Holy Flax is native to the Iberian Peninsula and some coastal areas of Portugal. This Santolina has longer, soft, fine textured leaves compared to S. chamaecyparisus and provides excellent wildlife and insect habitat. Less fragrant and less pungent than S. chamaecyparisus, the leaves can be used more easily in mediterranean dishes and cocktails, to add an olive-like flavour.

It is a useful ground cover plant for unimproved soils, growing into a dense, compact evergreen shrub up to 60 cm high, and a width often up to a metre. This Santolina thrives in heat and dry soils but dislikes winter wetness (in fact any wetness, so don't irrigate it) - so a free draining soil with an open airy aspect is best, plant on a slope if you have one. Through early summer it is covered in tight pale yellow composite flower heads carried on slender stalks above the foliage. The size and fine texture of this Santolina, particularly if planted in 3's and 5's, is useful as a back-drop to the smaller lavenders (or any other purplish flowering plant, such as Teucriums and Salvias), providing a lovely contrast to both the blue/grey foliage and the darker flowers of these plants.