Cistus lasianthus Lam.

Cistus lasianthus

subsp. alyssoides (Lam.) Demoly

A shrub about 2 ft high, but twice as much in diameter, forming a low mound of tangled, slender, spreading branches, densely clothed with grey, partly starry down. Leaves narrowly obovate or oblong to ovate-lanceolate, mostly tapered at the base, rounded or blunt at the apex, 1⁄3 to 11⁄4 in. long, 1⁄8 to 1⁄2 in. wide, grey with a dense down. Flowers in a branched, terminal hairy corymb; each flower 11⁄2 to 13⁄4 in. diameter, bright yellow, unblotched. Sepals three, ovate, pointed, densely but shortly hairy, 1⁄3 in. long; flower-stalk thickening upwards.

Native of the north-western part of the Iberian peninsula, and also of western and central France, where it extends east as far as the Massif Central and north to the region of Le Mans and Orleans; in cultivation 1775. Differs from the type subspecies in having shorter hairs on the sepals and pedicels, in the absence of purplish bristles on the calyx, and in the always unspotted petals. The low, spreading form described above is not reliably hardy, but the species has such a wide north-south range that it is likely to vary in hardiness, as it certainly does in habit, some wild plants being erect-branched and up to 3 ft high. Also, the plant described above, having the leaves grey and hairy above, probably came from the southern part of the area of the species. More commonly, subsp. alyssoides has the leaves green above.

subsp. lasianthus

A low shrub with wide-spreading branches, growing 2 to 3 ft high, but more in width, the young shoots erect, the whole plant grey with short down intermixed with which are numerous whitish, stellate or long simple hairs. Leaves oblong, oval or obovate, 1⁄2 to 11⁄2 in. long, 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. wide, three-nerved at the narrowed base, the apex rounded or abruptly pointed. Flowers borne at the end of short side twigs, clustered, but appearing successively; each flower 11⁄2 in. in diameter, bright rich yellow, each petal with a conspicuous brownish purple blotch near, but not reaching to the base. Sepals three, ovate, taper-pointed, with long, silky hairs and often with purplish bristles.

Native of S. Portugal; introduced in 1780; perhaps the most beautiful of all the sun roses we cultivate. It is perfectly hardy, and I have never seen it permanently injured by frost – even 30° to 32°. It is admirable for covering a dry sunny bank, and remains well furnished with foliage through the winter. It starts to flower in May.

There are other forms of C. lasianthus. In one, the flowers are smaller and the petals are unblotched or have a small blotch right at the base. There is also an unblotched form (f. concolor Hort.), which has been in cultivation since early in this century and perhaps longer. But some of the plants of this form now in gardens descend from a seedling collected by Hugh Farmar in 1948 in the foothills of the Sierra de Estrela, Portugal, which was propagated and distributed by Messrs Notcutt (Journ. R.H.S., Vol. 88 (1963), p. 262). This clone has proved very hardy.

Cistus lasianthus subsp. lasianthus – the clone distributed as 'Sandling' by Liss Forest Nursery, Hampshire, propagated from the eponymous Kent garden in the 1990s.