Grey-leaved rockrose
Cistus albidus
Family · Cistaceae · Harmless
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The rockrose with pink flowers and white leaves, among the showiest of limestone scrub. Each flower lasts less than a day and drops by late morning, which turns the plant into a clock: by afternoon there are only buds and fallen petals.
Scrubland · Uplands · Roadsides and waste ground
Also known aswhite-leaved rockrose
How to tell it
Oval stalkless leaves densely white-hairy on both sides, felt-like. Large lilac-pink flowers with five crumpled petals. Not sticky, unlike gum rockrose.
What it is confused with
Gum rockrose
Cistus ladanifer
Touch the leaf: gum rockrose is sticky with resin and has white flowers; grey-leaved rockrose is downy and dry, with pink flowers.
What it is for
Little direct use, great recovery value: it quickly colonises degraded limestone soils and protects the ground until mature scrub returns.
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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