Grey-leaved rockrose

Cistus albidus

Family · Cistaceae · Harmless

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.

Where it grows

Scrubland · Uplands · Roadsides and waste ground

Also known as

white-leaved rockrose

In flower

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

Harmless confusion

Touch the leaf: gum rockrose is sticky with resin and has white flowers; grey-leaved rockrose is downy and dry, with pink flowers.

Open sheet →

What it is for

Little direct use, great recovery value: it quickly colonises degraded limestone soils and protects the ground until mature scrub returns.

Sources

Flora-On