Cistus ladanifer
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Cistus ladanifer' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Infraspecifics
Other taxa in genus
- Cistus × aguilari
- Cistus albidus
- Cistus atchleyi
- Cistus atriplicifolius
- Cistus calycinus
- Cistus × canescens
- Cistus clusii
- Cistus creticus
- Cistus × crispatus
- Cistus crispus
- Cistus × cyprius
- Cistus × dansereaui
- Cistus × florentinus
- Cistus halimifolius
- Cistus × hetieri
- Cistus × hybridus
- Cistus × incanus
- Cistus inflatus
- Cistus × ingwersenii
- Cistus lasianthus
- Cistus laurifolius
- Cistus × laxus
- Cistus × ledon
- Cistus libanotis
- Cistus monspeliensis
- Cistus × nigricans
- Cistus × obtusifolius
- Cistus ocymoides
- Cistus osbeckiifolius
- Cistus parviflorus
- Cistus × platysepalus
- Cistus populifolius
- Cistus × purpureus
- Cistus × revolii
- Cistus rosmarinifolius
- Cistus × sahucii
- Cistus salviifolius
- Cistus 'Silver Pink'
- Cistus × skanbergii
- Cistus × stenophyllus
- Cistus symphytifolius
- Cistus umbellatus
- Cistus × verguinii
An evergreen shrub 3 to 5 ft high, of erect, thin habit; branches very clammy with a shining resin. Leaves three-nerved, glutinous, linear-lanceolate, 11⁄2 to 4 in. long, 1⁄4 to 3⁄4 in. wide; tapering gradually to both ends, scarcely stalked, the bases of each pair clasping the stem; dark green and glabrous above, covered beneath with a close grey felt. Flowers solitary at the end of slender side twigs, protected in the bud state by large bracts, white, with a fine blood-red blotch at the base of each petal, 3 to 4 in. across, the petals crimped at the margin. Sepals three, large, concave, covered with yellowish scales. Seed-vessel ten-valved.
Native of S. Europe and N. Africa; introduced in 1629. Near London this rock rose withstands frosts up to 20°, but is certainly not so hardy as C. × cyprius, nor so vigorous and bushy a plant. It is a beautiful species, especially the common crimson-blotched form, and has larger flowers than any other species we can cultivate out-of-doors. It differs from C. laurifolius in its narrow leaves, in the absence of hairs on the stem and flower-stalks, in the scaly sepals, and in the solitary flowers. (See also C. × cyprius.) There is a pure white, unspotted form of the species known as var. albiflorus (Dunal) Dansereau. It is said to be commoner in the wild than the blotched form.
Footnotes
This spelling of the specific epithet is to be preferred to the commoner rendering ladaniferus. Linnaeus treated Cistus as feminine and wrote the name of this species Cistus ladanifera. When Cistus is treated as a masculine noun, as it is generally, the epithet becomes ladanifer, in accordance with the rule of Latin grammar that compound adjectives ending in -fer and -ger take no termination in the nominative masculine.
Ingram hybrids
Cistus ladanifer × C. ladanifer subsp. sulcatus
Editorial Note
Bean described this hybrid taxon as ‘C. (ladanifer × palhinhae)’. We use the less unwieldy designation ‘Ingram hybrids’.
Shortly after introducing C. ladanifer subsp. sulcatus (syn. C. palhinhae), Capt. Ingram crossed it with a particularly fine (but tender) blotched form of C. ladanifer found by him in S.W. Spain in 1936. From the original cross and later seedlings from it he raised ‘Paladin’ (Award of Merit 1946), ‘Pat’ (Award of Merit 1955), both with blotched flowers, and ‘Blanche’ (Award of Merit 1967), in which the flowers are unblotched. These hybrids, although rather tender, have the great merit of combining the beautiful flowers of C. ladanifer with a bushy and spreading habit of growth. This should render them more suitable for coastal gardens of the south and west than C. ladanifer and some of its other hybrids, which are inclined to become leggy, and to blow over in exposed positions.
subsp. mauritianus Pau & Sennen
Synonyms
Cistus ladanifer var. petiolatus Maire
Editorial Note
Bean treated this taxon as Cistus ladanifer var. petiolatus.
Leaves shortly stalked; valves of capsule usually less than ten. This subspecies, native of N. Africa, also lacks the characteristic gum of the type. Dansereau considers that it may be the result of past hybridisation between C. ladanifer and C. laurifolius. C. ladanifer, mostly in its blotched form, is the parent of most of the cistus hybrids commonly seen in gardens: see C. × cyprius, C. × lusitanicus, and C. × purpureus.
subsp. sulcatus (Demoly) P.Monts.
Synonyms
Cistus ladanifer f. latifolius Daveau
Cistus palhinhae N.D.Ingram
A compact, evergreen, glutinous shrub about 11⁄2 to 2 ft high, more in width, densely leafy; shoots glabrous. Leaves dark green, scarcely stalked, obovate, blunt or rounded at the apex, tapered from the middle downwards, 11⁄2 to 2 in. long, about half as wide, pinnately veined, densely covered with white down beneath. Flowers solitary, pure satin-white, 3 to 4 in. wide, opening in May and June, sepals three, densely ciliate. Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 157.
Native of Portugal, and introduced by Capt. Collingwood Ingram in 1939; it first flowered in 1943. Certainly one of the finest species of the genus, its immense blossoms showing in great beauty against the dense, dark green foliage. The white under-surface of the leaves is very distinctive. It is confined in the natural state to the limestone promontory of Cape St Vincent in the Algarve, while the type subspecies, which is common in this part of Portugal, stops short as soon as it meets the limestone (C. Ingram in Journ. R.H.S., Vol. 77, 1952, p. 91). It is not completely hardy.
Using this as a parent, Capt. Ingram has raised some fine hybrids – see also C. crispus ‘Anne Palmer’, C. laurifolius ‘Elma’.