Cistus heterophyllus Desf.
Spa.: Estepa mora, jara mora, jara de Cartagena, estepa de Cartagena (the last two referring to subsp. carthaginensis). Ara.: Çfeira, chahmet el atrus. Tam.: Tuzzalt, irgel.
Evergreen shrub, hermaphrodite, up to 0.8(1) m in height, erect and very ramose. Stems with brown-greyish bark, very dark in older specimens. Branchlets densely covered with 3 types of hairs, stellate, simple and long, and glanduliferous and short. Leaves small (0.5-2 × 0.2-1 cm), opposite, with 2 different types (heterophyllous): upper leaves sessile, lower leaves with winged petiole, traversed by 3 veins and amplexicaul, up to 3 mm long, elliptic or ovate-rhomboid, with margin slightly undulate and slightly revolute, pinnate venation clearly visible on the underside between a dense tomentum of small stellate hairs. Flowers (3-5 cm in diameter) with pedicels 5-10 mm long, in terminal cymes of 1-3. Sepals 5, ± equal, hairy (sericeous). Petals 5, 12-25 × 10-25 mm, pinkish-purplish with yellow base, ± twice as long as the sepals. Fruit an ovoid capsule 7-9 mm, villous, dehiscent in 5 valves. Seeds numerous and minute, papillose and brownish.
Flowering:
March to June.
Fruiting:
Throughout the summer.
Habitat:
Thickets on very diverse terrains, but generally carbonated. From semiarid to subhumid bioclimate, on mainly thermomediterranean floors. It is a thermophilic plant, so it always appears at low altitudes; usually it does not exceed 150 m in altitude; it always grows in littoral or sublittoral regions.
Distribution:
Western Mediterranean region, especially common in the NW Mediterranean area of Africa, in the littoral and sublittoral mountains from the Dahra region (to the W of Algiers) to the central coastal Rif. In the SE of Spain, subsp. carthaginensis (Pau) M.B. Crespo & Mateo (C. carthaginensis Pau) has been described, from the provinces of Murcia and Valencia, but it does not seem to differ greatly from the African populations.
Conservation status:
Very rare and threatened species in Spain but common and does not seem to present conservation problems in North Africa. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.