Cistus creticus L.
rock rose
Bushy, aromatic shrub to c. 1.5 m tall, with stellate, and sparse glandular hairs. Shoots whitish when young, not viscid. Petioles subsessile to 8 mm long, ± winged. Lamina 1.5-5 × 0.8-2.5 cm, ovate to elliptic, sometimes ± obovate or suborbicular, rugose, moderately hairy on both surfaces and appearing green or somewhat greyish; venation pinnate, impressed above; margins strongly undulate; base cuneate; apex subacute; lf pairs not connate. Cymes up to 6-flowered. Peduncles 1-5.5 cm long, densely covered in stellate hairs and ± pilose; pedicels to 2.5 cm long, more densely pilose than peduncles. Bracts foliose. Sepals 5; outer sepals 1.3-1.7 cm long, broad-ovate, with stellate hairs and pilose, sometimes densely so, cordate at base, acuminate or subulate at apex; inner sepals similar to outer but narrower. Petals (1.5)-2.5-3 cm long, broad-obovate, deep rose with yellow base. Style c. 4 mm long; stigma capitate, of moderate size. Capsule 7-11 mm long, broad-ovoid, silky. Seed angular, puberulent.
N.: vicinity of Napier; S.: near Victoria Park, and Charteris Bay (Banks Peninsula).
Mediterranean 1962
Warm dry hill slopes, open grassy sites and in light scrub.
FL Sep-Dec.
C. creticus is a commonly cultivated ornamental and has also been used for erosion control. It is the most likely sp. of sect. Eucistus to be found wild in N.Z., but there has been much confusion over the correct names for the pink-flowered taxa in this group. As treated here, C. creticus includes C. villosus L., C. incanus auct. non L., and C. polymorphus Willk. There are a number of described vars and hybrids of C. creticus, but it is very difficult to assign naturalised N.Z. plants to them. The main variation in naturalised N.Z. plants is in the hairiness of lvs, bracts and calyx; however all plants have the diagnostic petiolate lvs with rugose, undulate, and pinnately veined lamina.
