Rosemary-leaved rockrose
Cistus clusii
Family · Cistaceae · Harmless
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The rockrose disguised as rosemary: identical narrow rolled leaves, but with clusters of white flowers instead of blue ones held against the branch. It grows on the dry limestone of the east and south.
Scrubland · Uplands · Roadsides and waste ground
Also known asClusius's rockrose
How to tell it
Very narrow, dark green leaves with down-rolled margins and a white underside, exactly like rosemary's. The difference is in the flower: clusters of white, five crumpled-petalled flowers at the branch tips.
What it is confused with
Rosemary
Salvia rosmarinus
The leaf is practically identical, so it is no use. Rub it: rosemary smells of rosemary, this smells of nothing. And rosemary has blue flowers against the branch, this has a cluster of white flowers at the tip.
Open sheet →What it is for
No relevant use. It counts as a warning that a leaf alone is not enough to identify: here two completely different families arrived at the same leaf by living in the same dry place.