Wrinkle-leaved rockrose
Cistus crispus
Family · Cistaceae · Harmless
The small rockrose with intense carmine-pink flowers and wavy leaves that look gathered. It grows on acid sandy soils in the south and is among the showiest of the genus, despite its size.
Scrubland · Pine woods · Montado · Dunes and sand
Also known ascurly-leaved cistus
How to tell it
Stalkless leaves, wavy and wrinkled at the margin, with three marked veins and hairy, giving a grey tone. Carmine-pink flowers, darker than grey-leaved rockrose's, grouped in threes or fours at the tip. A low cushion, up to half a metre.
What it is confused with
Grey-leaved rockrose
Cistus albidus
The leaf: wavy and gathered here, flat and felted on grey-leaved rockrose. And the soil: this on acid sand, the other on limestone.
What it is for
No direct use
It indicates acid sandy soil, unlike grey-leaved rockrose, which wants limestone: two pink rockroses that say opposite things about the ground.
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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