Cistus albidus L.
Grey-leaved Cistus, Jara blanca (ES), Weißliche Zistrose (DE), grey-leaf cistus
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Cistus albidus, the grey-leaved cistus, 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.
Text from Wikipedia, “Cistus albidus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Cistus
Cistus is a genus of flowering plants in the rockrose family Cistaceae, containing about 34 species and a similar number of natural hybrids. They are perennial shrubs found on dry or rocky soils throughout the Mediterranean region, from Morocco, Spain, Italy, Greece, through to the Middle East, and also on the Canary Islands.
Text from Wikipedia, “Cistus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Cistus albeerensis var. barcinonensis Sennen; Cistus albidus f. albus (Warb.) Dans.; Cistus albidus f. platyphyllus Sennen; Cistus albidus f. typicus Dans.; Cistus albidus var. albus Warb. and 11 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, September to February and April in the northern hemisphere (September to February and April at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (503 mm of 663 mm) falls in September to February and April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 12.8 °C against a yearly mean of 15.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to August and October.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 663 mm a year, wettest November at 87 mm, driest July at 11 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
663 mm a year at the habitat, 503 mm of it September to February and April. Wettest month November at 87 mm, driest July at 11 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 500 mm to 911 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 47 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor 0.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 0.4 °C, the absolute minimum -6.9 °C, about 3 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.7 °C to 9.3 °C), warmest day 28.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 12 / 9–14 | 13 / 10–15 | 15 / 13–18 | 17 / 15–19 | 21 / 18–23 | 25 / 22–28 | 28 / 25–32 | 28 / 25–31 | 24 / 22–27 | 20 / 18–22 | 15 / 13–18 | 12 / 10–15 |
| Night °C | 5 / 1–9 | 5 / 1–10 | 7 / 3–11 | 9 / 6–12 | 12 / 9–15 | 16 / 13–18 | 19 / 16–21 | 19 / 16–22 | 17 / 13–19 | 13 / 10–17 | 9 / 5–13 | 6 / 2–11 |
| Rain mm | 66 / 39–96 | 53 / 36–84 | 46 / 33–66 | 64 / 47–92 | 53 / 32–73 | 27 / 10–46 | 11 / 2–26 | 23 / 5–48 | 62 / 28–96 | 86 / 59–124 | 87 / 54–128 | 85 / 45–156 |
| DLI | 15 / 12–17 | 21 / 18–23 | 30 / 27–33 | 37 / 34–40 | 42 / 39–45 | 47 / 43–50 | 47 / 43–51 | 41 / 37–45 | 32 / 29–36 | 22 / 19–26 | 16 / 13–18 | 13 / 10–15 |
| RH % | 60 / 57–63 | 59 / 57–62 | 58 / 54–60 | 57 / 54–61 | 57 / 53–62 | 56 / 50–62 | 55 / 47–61 | 56 / 48–62 | 58 / 52–62 | 60 / 56–62 | 60 / 58–63 | 61 / 57–64 |
Each figure is the median across the 508 grid cells holding the 771 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 937:3661 (43.125, 3.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -6.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 508 distinct grid cells holding the 771 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 937:3661 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 43.00_3.125, lapse-corrected -18 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 51 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Thomas Dreux, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).
Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Cistus albidus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Salvia rosmarinus Rosemary
Calendula arvensis Field Marigold
Tamarix gallica French tamarisk
Romulea ramiflora Branch Froetang
Cynara cardunculus Cardoon
Rhamnus alaternus Evergreen buckthornOther Cistus 3 in the reference
Cistus creticus Cretan rockrose
Cistus ladanifer Common gum cistus
Cistus salviifolius Sage-leaved Rock-rose History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
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