Cistus ladanifer L.
gum cistus
Glandular-viscid, aromatic shrub, 1-2 m high, often forming a large bush. Shoots dark reddish brown, extremely viscid when young, glabrous. Lvs sessile or subsessile, 3.5-9.5 × 0.5-1.5 cm, linear-lanceolate or narrow-elliptic, whitish grey, appressed stellate-tomentulose beneath, glabrous above and shining with very viscid gum when young, usually 3-nerved, revolute, attenuate at apex and base; lf pairs not connate. Fls solitary on short lateral branches which elongate at fruiting. Bracts large and foliose, yellowish brown, very viscid, fringed with long white hairs; lowermost bracts foliose. Pedicels short, extremely viscid. Sepals 3, c. 1.5 cm diam., orbicular, scaly and ciliate. Petals 5-6 cm long, broad-ovate, white with yellow base, with or without a purple or crimson blotch near base. Stigma almost sessile, large, capitate. Capsule 1-1.3 mm diam., globose, stellate-tomentose. Seed angular, glabrous.
S.: Ruby Bay (Nelson), in and near Victoria Park (Port Hills, Christchurch).
W. Mediterranean 1982
Warm dry hill slopes.
FL Nov-Dec.
Gum cistus is a popular ornamental and has also been used in recent years for erosion control. Most plants lack the purple blotch on the petals and so can be referred to var. albiflorus (Dunal) Dansereau; some plants can be referred to the type var. although the characteristic blotch may be small or weakly developed.
A hybrid of C. ladanifer with C. creticus, C. × purpureus Lam., is probably the commonest rock rose cultivated in N.Z., but it does not grow spontaneously. It is less resinous than C. ladanifer, and has pink petals similar to those of C. creticus; however the petals are as large as those of C. ladanifer and possess a purple blotch as in var. ladanifer.
C. laurifolius and C. ladanifer are the usual spp. in sect. Ladanium cultivated in N.Z.
