Cistus, with its many hybrids and cultivars, is commonly encountered as a garden flower.
The common namerockrose (rock rose in the UK) is applied to the species, a name also shared by the related generaHelianthemum andTuberaria, all in the family Cistaceae. The common namegum cistus is applied to resin-bearing species, especiallyC. ladanifer.
Theleaves areevergreen, opposite, simple, usually slightly rough-surfaced, 2–8 cm long. In a few species (notablyC. ladanifer), the leaves are coated with a highly aromaticresin calledlabdanum.
They have showy 5-petaledflowers ranging from white to purple and dark pink, in a few species with a conspicuous dark red spot at the base of each petal.
Cistus andHalimium form a cohesive and the most derived clade withinCistaceae.[2]Plants of the World Online andWorld Flora Online treatHalimium as asynonym ofCistus.[3][4]Molecular phylogenetic analyses conducted between 2005 and 2011 confirm thatCistus species divide into two well-definedclades, neither of which was fully resolved internally. The first clade consists of those with purple and pink flowers (the "purple pink clade" or PPC). The second clade consists of those with white flowers or, in the case ofCistus parviflorus, pale pink flowers (the "white or whitish pink clade" or WWPC).[2][5][6][7] Although the flower colour ofC. parviflorus is anomalous, it has very shortstyles, otherwise characteristic of WWPC species. Ahybrid origin has been suggested.[5] A simplified cladogram is shown below:[8]
Species-level cladogram ofCistus species, based on plastid and nuclear DNA sequences.[5][2][6][7]
Within the purple pink clade (PPC),C. crispus is consistently the first diverging species.C. albidus,C. creticus andC. heterophyllus form a well supported clade. Seven species endemic to the Canary Islands form apolytomy, resolved differently in different analyses, in which subtaxa of some species do not always cluster together. Within the white and whitish pink clade (WWPC), there is weak support for a clade consisting ofC. clusii andC. munbyi; the other species either formed part of a polytomy or resolved differently in different analyses.Halimium andCistus were regularly shown to beparaphyletic with respect to one another.[7]
They are thermophilous plants, which require open, sunny places. This plant genus is peculiar in that it has developed a range of specific adaptations to resist summer drought and frequent disturbance events, such as fire and grazing. In addition, it can form bothectomycorrhizas andarbuscular mycorrhizas. More than 200 ectomycorrhiza-forming fungal species belonging to 40 genera have been reported so far to be associated withCistus.[19] As with many other Cistaceae, the species ofCistus have the ability to formmycorrhizal associations withtruffles (Tuber) and are thus able to thrive on poor sandy soils or rocks.Cistus ladanifer has been found to have mycorrhizal associations withBoletus edulis,Boletus rhodoxanthus, andLaccaria laccata.[20]
Cistus are the only host ofCytinus hypocistis, a smallparasitic plant that lives on the roots and is noticeable only for a short period of time when in flower. The presence of the parasite does not seem to harm the host population.
VariousCistus species are known to emit volatile oils, rendering the plants flammable. Their emission of these essential oils is a genetic adaptation for the species intended to actually promote flammability and even cause spontaneous combustion.[21]Cistus plants are therefore consideredpyrophytes, or plants which rely upon fire as a part of their life cycle to encourage spread within their biome.Cistus seeds are resistant to the fires allowing them to germinate once fires have subsided and allowing them to benefit from an environment with less competition from other species.[22]
Cistuses are suitable for sunny gardens with a nearly frost-freeMediterranean climate. The hardiest of the species isC. laurifolius, which survived the hard frost atRoyal Botanical Gardens at Kew in 1895 that eliminated all the cistuses save this and two white-flowered natural hybrids,C. ×corbariensis, already grown byJohn Tradescant the Elder, andC. ×loretii, a 19th-century introduction.[23]
^abcGuzmán, B. & Vargas, P. (2009). "Historical biogeography and character evolution of Cistaceae (Malvales) based on analysis of plastid rbcL and trnL-trnF sequences".Organisms Diversity & Evolution.9 (2):83–99.Bibcode:2009ODivE...9...83G.doi:10.1016/j.ode.2009.01.001.
^Flammability and Combustibility of Cistus Plant Groups in Tlemcen Region(Algeria), SMAÏN EL-AMINE HENAOUI, National Forest Research Institute (INRF), Published by International Journal of Ecology and Environmental Sciences 44 (4): 383-393, 2018ISSN: 2320-5199
^Aguayo-Villalba, A.Á., Álvarez-Gómez, C.M., Aisa-Ahmed, M. et al. Effect of fire on viability and germination behaviour of Cistus ladanifer and Cistus salvifolius seeds. Folia Geobot 56, 215–225 (2021).https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-022-09405-2
^Coats, Alice M. (1992) [1964]. "Cistus".Garden Shrubs and Their Histories (1st US ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster.ISBN978-0-671-74733-6.
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