Cistus albidus

Cistus albidus, the grey-leaved cistus,^[2] is a shrubby species of flowering plant in the family Cistaceae, with pink to purple flowers, native to south-western Europe and western north Africa.

Cistus albidus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Malvales
Family:	Cistaceae
Genus:	Cistus
Species:	C. albidus
Binomial name
Cistus albidus L.[1]

Description

Cistus albidus grows up to 1 m (3 ft) tall. Its leaves are oblong to elliptical in shape, usually 2–5 cm (0.8–2.0 in) long by 0.5–2 cm (0.2–0.8 in) wide. They have three prominent veins and are densely covered with short hairs, producing a greyish-white appearance. The flowers are arranged in cymes of one to seven individual flowers, each 4–6 cm (1.6–2.4 in) across with five purple to pink petals and five sepals.^[3]

Taxonomy and phylogeny

Cistus albidus was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in Species Plantarum (p. 524).^[1] The specific epithet albidus means "whitish", referring to the leaves and shoots.^[4]

A 2011 molecular phylogenetic study placed C. albidus as the sister to Cistus creticus in the purple and pink flowered clade (PPC) of Cistus species. C. creticus is found largely in the eastern Mediterranean, and the distributions of the two species show little overlap. They are able to hybridize, producing the fertile hybrid C. × canescens.^[5]

The sister group to both species is C. heterophyllus.

Species-level cladogram of Cistus species.

Halimium spp.           Halimium spp.   PPC           Cistus crispus                 Cistus heterophyllus           Cistus albidus     Cistus creticus           Cistus asper     Cistus chinamadensis     Cistus horrens     Cistus ocreatus     Cistus osbeckiifolius     Cistus palmensis     Cistus symphytifolius     WWPC                 Cistus clusii     Cistus munbyi           Cistus inflatus     Cistus ladanifer     Cistus laurifolius     Cistus libanotis     Cistus monspeliensis     Cistus parviflorus     Cistus populifolius     Cistus pouzolzii     Cistus salviifolius     Cistus sintenisii     Purple   Pink   Clade   White   Whitish Pink   Clade

Species-level cladogram of Cistus species, based on plastid and nuclear DNA sequences.[5][6][7][8]

Distribution

Cistus albidus is native to the west of Southern Europe and western North Africa, particularly around the Mediterranean, including Portugal, Spain, the Balearic Islands, France, Corsica, Italy, Sardinia,^[3] and Morocco.^[5]