Cistus crispus L.
Eng.: Curled-leaved rock rose. Spa.: Jara rizada, jaguarzo merino. Fre.: Ciste à feuilles crispées, ciste crépu. Ara.: Mellits, mallih, uerd el kelab. Tam.: Tuzzla.
Evergreen shrub, hermaphrodite, 0.2-0.5(0.7) m in height, erect or somewhat prostrate, highly ramose, deep green. Stems with brown-reddish bark, shiny, scaly. Branchlets villous, with stellate and simple hairs. Leaves small, 10-40 x 3-13 mm, opposite, sessile, connate in a reddish sheath; ovate-lanceolate to elliptical, with undulate-crispate margin, and traversed longitudinally by 3-5 subparallel veins; very rugose and deep green on the upper side, slightly lighter on the underside, densely villous, with numerous stellate hairs and some simple and glanduliferous hairs. Flowers 3-5 cm in diameter, with very short pedicels (1-5 mm, at first sight they may appear sessile), grouped in dense cymes, covered by bracts that hide the calyces. Sepal 5, ± equal, villous, ovate-lanceolate, almost as long as the petals. Petals 5, 12-20 × 10-20 mm, purple with yellow base. Fruit an ovoid-oblong capsule, 5-6 mm long, glabrescent, dehiscent in 5 valves. Seeds polyhedral, with a smooth surface. 2n = 18.
Flowering:
March to June.
Fruiting:
Throughout the summer.
Habitat:
Generally, it is a proliferous species in silicate soils, ± clayey, predominantly in potential areas of cork and Pyrenean oak forests, always below 1,000 m. In dry, subhumid and humid bioclimate, on thermomediterranean and mesomediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Western Mediterranean region. In North Africa its distribution is very scattered, from the Atlantic coast of the N of Morocco (from the Middle Atlas to the Rif) to the N of Tunisia (Cape Bon).
Conservation status:
Rare species but it can become locally abundant. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
