This mountain plant from the citrus family is attractive with its clusters of pink flowers and its citrus-like perfume. The latter is due to volatile terpenes, that the plant produces in such abundance that it is nicknamed the gas plant and can, indeed in summer, burst into flames and even start wildfires. Limonene, myrcene and terpinolene are major constituents of the essential oil.
Linnaeus’s name for the species — albus being Latin for white — was not coined for its flower color but came from the medicinal use of the white roots of the plant. The plant is rich in magnesium and iron. It is found in open woods, dry meadows and rocky places. It forms a tuft with alternate, pinnate, leathery leaves that can measure up to 35 cm long (14 in) and are made of lanceolate to oval leaflets.
This plant grows about 40 cm (16 in) to 100 cm (39 in) high. Its flowers form a loose pyramidal spike and vary in colour from pale purple to white. The flowers are five-petalled with long projecting stamens. The leaves resemble those of an ash tree.
It occurs throughout South and central Europe, temperate Asia, and temperate Himalayas. In the Alps, it is found on cliffs of moderate and high elevation. In temperate Himalayas, it often grows on rocky habitats between 2775 m and 3000 m.
It is a medicinal plant whose virtues were renowned since antiquity. In the twelth century, Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) wrote in her book Physica “He who suffers from the heart, let him eat dictam powder and the pain will cease.” Between 1000 and 1700 numerous complex preparations with “Dictamnus” were used in the treatment of about 35 different pathologies.