Cistus hirsutus Lam.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Cistus hirsutus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cistus/cistus-hirsutus/). Accessed 2024-03-27.

Genus

Glossary

apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
keel petal
(in the flowers of some legumes) The two front petals fused together to form a keel-like structure.
simple
(of a leaf) Unlobed or undivided.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Cistus hirsutus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cistus/cistus-hirsutus/). Accessed 2024-03-27.

A much-branched shrub up to 3 ft high, the shoots densely covered with down amidst which are numerous white outstanding hairs. Leaves stalkless, ovate-oblong, blunt at the apex, three-nerved and rounded at the base; 1 to 212 in. long, 14 to 34 in. wide; very hairy, the hairs on the upper surface and at the margins long, whitish, simple; those beneath short, starry. Flowers 112 in. diameter, white, with a yellow stain near the base of each petal; produced in a terminal cymose cluster. Sepals five, outer ones heart-shaped, 34 in. long, with a broad base 12 in. wide, and a tapered point; inner ones ovate, smaller, all shaggy with white hairs.

Native of Spain and Portugal (it is not a native of France but has become naturalised there in Britanny near Landerneau); introduced about the middle of the seventeenth century. An almost hardy species, only injured in exceptionally severe winters. With C. salviifolius and C. populifolius it forms the group Ledonia, characterised by large, heart-shaped outer sepals. It is distinguished from the other two by its stalkless leaves.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

This is indeed the species that Lamarck named C. hirsutus in 1786, but eight years earlier he had applied the same name to a different species. The name used in Flora Europaea for C. hirsuta Lam. (1786) is C. psilosepalus Sweet.


C × platysepalus Sweet

A hybrid between C. hirsutus and C. monspeliensis which has been found wild in Portugal and also raised in gardens. It is intermediate between the parents, the leaves being less hairy than in C. hirsutus and ovate-lanceolate in shape. Abnormal forms which lack stamens have been reported.

var. psilosepalus (Sweet) Willk.

Synonyms
C. psilosepalus Sweet

Leaves on short stalks; outer sepals glabrous on the back, with ciliate margins.