Saturday 9 March 2019

9-3-2019 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - MONTPELLIER CISTUS (Cistus monspeliensis)


Cistus monspeliensis is a species of rockrose known by the common name Montpellier cistus or narrow-leaved cistus. It is native to southern Europe and northern Africa, in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecosystems of matorral—maquis shrublands.

Cistus monspeliensis is a shrub with narrow evergreen leaves and a hairy, glandular, sticky surface. The leaves are linear to lance-shaped, green, with a rugose, wrinkled upper surface, up to 5 centimeters long. In cultivation, C. monspeliensis attains a height of around one meter and a width of 1.5 metres.

The plant's inflorescence is generally a panicle of 2 to 8 flowers, each with five sepals and five white petals.

It is mainly distributed throughout the western Mediterranean Basin (Portugal, including Madeira; Spain, including the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands; Morocco; southern France, including Corsica; Italy, including Sardinia and Sicily; Malta; Algeria; Tunisia) but it is also present in Croatia; Serbia; Albania; Montenegro; Greece and Cyprus.

The plant has been reported elsewhere as an introduced species, and in California as an invasive species.

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