Cistus psilosepalus Sweet
Spreading, somewhat viscid, shrub to 1 m high. Shoots green, with dense glandular and sparse pilose hairs. Lvs sessile, 1.7-4 × 0.4-1.5 cm, oblong to narrow-elliptic or elliptic, ± 3-nerved, with hairs stellate beneath and sometimes almost confined to veins, white-pilose above; simple hairs bulbous-based; lf pairs often ± connate at base; apex ± subacute; margin somewhat revolute. Cymes to 10-flowered. Peduncles to c. 5 cm long, with glandular hairs and pilose; pedicels shorter and more densely pilose than peduncles. Bracts large and foliose. Sepals 5; outer sepals 1-1.5 cm long, broad-ovate, white-pilose, often purplish, cordate at base, acuminate or subulate at apex; inner sepals similar but narrower. Petals 1.3-1.6 cm long, obovate, white with yellow base, strongly crumpled until full anthesis. Stigma almost sessile, large and capitate. Capsule c. 7 mm long, hairy. Seed angular, glabrous.
S.: near Victoria Park (Port Hills, Christchurch).
Iberian Peninsula 1962
Warm, dry hill slopes.
FL Oct-Dec.
C. psilosepalus is cultivated as an ornamental and spontaneous plants occur near original plantings. It was earlier used in trials for erosion control, especially in C. Otago, but trials were abandoned when it was found that the sp. showed a strong tendency to become an aggressive coloniser.
The taxonomy of C. psilosepalus has been rather confused and in many works this entity is treated as C. hirsutus Lam. var. psilosepalus (Sweet) Willk.. However, in Fl. Europ. 2: 283 (1968), C. hirsutus Lam. 1786 non Lam. 1778 is placed in synonomy under C. psilosepalus.
Two related spp., C. monspeliensis L. and C. salvifolius L., are cultivated and spontaneous seedlings grow in the vicinity of parents. C. monspeliensis is distinguished from C. psilosepalus by its linear-lanceolate lvs and the ovate sepals with a rounded base, and C. salvifolius is distinguished by its petiolate, pinnately-nerved lvs.
