Laurel-leaved rockrose
Cistus laurifolius
Family · Cistaceae · Harmless
The rockrose of the high inland sierras, the only one in the genus that takes cold and snow. It climbs above a thousand metres, where no other rockrose goes, and fills Central System slopes with white flowers in June.
Uplands · Scrubland · Pine woods · Oak woods
Also known aslaurel rockrose
How to tell it
Leathery lance-shaped leaves with a clear stalk, dark green above and white-felted beneath, much like a bay leaf's. Sticky to the touch. Large white flowers with a yellow centre, in groups of three to eight on a long stalk.
What it is confused with
Gum rockrose
Cistus ladanifer
The leaf: narrow and stalkless on common gum rockrose, broad with a clear stalk here. And altitude: the common one lives low down, this one above a thousand metres.
What it is for
Firewood and labdanum of poorer quality than common gum rockrose's. It is a structuring species of mountain scrub and one of the few that resprouts well after fire at altitude.
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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