The lavenders (botanic name Lavandula) are a genus of 39 species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is an Old World genus, found from Cape Verde and Canary Islands, southern Europe across to northern and eastern Africa, the Mediterranean, south-west Asia to south-east India. Many members of the genus are cultivated extensively in temperate climates as ornamental plants for garden and landscape use, and also commercially for the extraction of essential oils.