The species are small evergreenshrubs growing to 10-60 cm tall. The leaves are simple and minute in some species, or pinnate, finely divided in other species, and often densely silvery hairy. The flowers are yellow, produced in dense globose capitulae (flowerheads) 1-2 cm diameter on top of slender stems held 10-25 cm above the foliage.citation needed
Santolina species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Bucculatrix santolinella (feeds exclusively on S. chamaecyparissus) and the Coleophora case-bearers C. albicella (recorded on S. chamaecyparissus), C. involucrella (feeds exclusively on Santolina spp) and C. santolinella (feeds exclusively on S. chamaecyparissus).citation needed