This deciduous shrub is bearing slender panicles of flower in the Mediterranean Beds.
Vitex agnus-castus has an open, spreading habit and can reach 8m in height. It has opposite, palmately-lobed leaves with up to seven narrow, lightly toothed leaflets. In autumn it produces slender, erect, terminal panicles of many tubular, slightly scented flowers, which can range in colour from deep blue through to white. Native of the Mediterranean and south west Asia, it grows in river beds, often alongside tamarisk and oleander. The common name chaste plant derives from the Greek for chastity, and legend has it that Athenian ladies made their beds of the leaves of this shrub in order to preserve their chastity. V. agnus-castus is one of 250 species which occur mainly in tropical zones. The genus belongs to the Lamiaceae (mint family), and as is typical of members of this family, the flowers are two-lipped.