Cistus × obtusifolius Sweet

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Cistus × obtusifolius' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cistus/cistus-x-obtusifolius/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Genus

Glossary

apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
hybrid
Plant originating from the cross-fertilisation of genetically distinct individuals (e.g. two species or two subspecies).
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.
imparipinnate
Odd-pinnate; (of a compound leaf) with a central rachis and an uneven number of leaflets due to the presence of a terminal leaflet. (Cf. paripinnate.)

References

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Cistus × obtusifolius' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cistus/cistus-x-obtusifolius/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

An evergreen shrub of rounded, much-branched habit, 112 to 212 ft high; young shoots slender, covered with greyish starry down. Leaves almost or quite stalkless, oval or ovate-oblong, bluntish to rounded at the apex, tapered at the base; 1 to 2 in. long, 13 to 58 in. wide; dull grey green, starry-downy on both surfaces, more especially beneath, roughish above, margins slightly recurved. Flowers several in a cluster opening in June, white, about 112 in. in diameter, each petal having a yellow stain at the base. Sepals green, 38 in. long, heart-shaped, pointed, hairy and fringed with hairs; flower-stalks grey with hairs.

This rock rose, originally named and described by Sweet about 1827, is a natural hybrid between C. salviifolius and C. hirsutus and shows its ancestry in the heart-shaped sepals and more or less three-veined leaves. The stalked leaves with pinnate veins and often solitary flowers of C. salviifolius distinguish it, and C. hirsutus is easily distinguished by its markedly three-veined, broad-based leaves. It is found wild in Portugal and is one of the hardier rock roses, growing well and flowering well in a sunny well-drained spot. Easily increased by late summer cuttings.