Spotted rockrose
Tuberaria guttata
Family · Cistaceae · Harmless
The small yellow flower with a reddish brown blotch at each petal's base, filling sandy clearings in spring, whose petals drop at the first touch. Each flower lasts a morning.
Scrubland · Pine woods · Dunes and sand · Fields and pasture
Also known asannual rockrose
How to tell it
Five paper-thin yellow petals, almost always with a dark basal blotch, over a rosette of hairy leaves. A small annual that vanishes entirely in summer. The petals fall away if touched.
What it is confused with
Sage-leaved rockrose
Cistus salviifolius
Same family, both with fragile petals. Sage-leaved rockrose is a woody shrub with white flowers; spotted rockrose is a small annual herb with a blotched yellow flower.
What it is for
No direct use
The common name comes from an old belief: it was said that where it grew there were desert truffles below, and there is in fact a real association with those underground fungi on sandy soils.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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