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 | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Malvales |
Family: | Cistaceae |
Genus: | Cistus |
Species: | C. monspeliensis
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Binomial name | |
Cistus monspeliensis |
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.[2]
The plant's inflorescence is generally a panicle of 2 to 8 flowers, each with five sepals and five white petals.[3]
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.[1]
The plant has been reported elsewhere as an introduced species, and in California as an invasive species.[3]
Cistus monspeliensis belongs to the white and whitish pink flowered clade of Cistus species.
Species-level cladogram of Cistus species. | ||||||||||||||
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Species-level cladogram of Cistus species, based on plastid and nuclear DNA sequences.[4][5][6][7] |