AbstractThe essential oils from severalSantolina chamaecyparissusL. subspecies from wild (Spanish insular and peninsular) and cultivated (Spanish and British) populations have been examined. According to the composition of the volatiles three different groups are proposed: cultivated, insular, and peninsular samples. Artemisia ketone (27.8–35.6%) and T‐cadinol (23.6–4.8%) were characteristic components in cultivated samples, whereas in the insular ones camphor (42.9%) and cubenol (17.3%) were the main compounds. Monoterpenes predominated in the essential oils of peninsular populations corresponding to subspeciesincana(85.9%) andsquarrosa(45.2–68.5%), of which camphor (9.2–24.9%), borneol (11.6–28.4%) and 1,8‐cineole (2.3–8.7%) were the major components. Conversely, the essential oil of subspeciestomentosawas mainly composed of sesquiterpenes (61.4%), elemol (5.0%), nerolidol + spathulenol (9.3%), copaenol (15.2%), ledol (4.1%) and cubenol (6.7%) being the m