Species
+

Cistus creticus L.

Cretan rockrose, Hoary Rock-rose, Hoary Rock-rose [Cistus incanus], pink rockrose

Climate known 52 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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 creticus is a species of shrubby plant in the family Cistaceae. Though it usually has pink flowers, of 4.5–5 cm (1.8–2.0 in) diameter, this species is very variable. It is widely known as a decorative plant. It is frequently called "Cistus incanus".

Text from Wikipedia, “Cistus creticus”, 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.

Family
Cistaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Corse, Sardegna, Albania +13
Wild records
1631 in range· 765 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Aug, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
725mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Dec 113 mm (CHELSA)
Light
11–47DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 725 mm a year, wettest December at 113 mm, driest July at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 47 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 0.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cistus creticus var. creticus; Cistus ladanifera Garsault; Cistus ladaniferus Stokes; Cistus salviifolius Pall.; Cistus salviifolius Pall. ex M.Bieb. and 1 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (October to March 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 (531 mm of 725 mm) falls in October to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 11.8 °C against a yearly mean of 16.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

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 725 mm a year, wettest December at 113 mm, driest July at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

725 mm a year at the habitat, 531 mm of it October to March. Wettest month December at 113 mm, driest July at 10 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 505 mm to 1138 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: 11 to 47 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 11 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 9, 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 0.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 0.0 °C, the absolute minimum -3.0 °C, about 4 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.9 °C in February (across the envelope cells 0.5 °C to 9.9 °C), warmest day 27.3 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.0 °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.

Humidity

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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 11 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Aug; mean night from 6 °C in Feb to 21 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 725 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1046 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost37.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 11–47RH 55–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1046 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C11 / 8–1411 / 8–1413 / 11–1716 / 14–2120 / 18–2524 / 22–2927 / 24–3127 / 25–3124 / 22–2920 / 18–2515 / 13–1912 / 9–16
Night °C6 / 0–106 / 1–108 / 3–1110 / 6–1414 / 10–1718 / 14–2121 / 17–2321 / 17–2419 / 14–2215 / 10–1911 / 5–158 / 2–12
Rain mm89 / 53–17674 / 46–14268 / 48–10455 / 25–9437 / 10–7423 / 1–5810 / 1–3619 / 1–5150 / 5–10082 / 32–134105 / 70–178113 / 75–184
DLI14 / 11–1920 / 17–2528 / 25–3336 / 33–4142 / 40–4747 / 43–5147 / 44–5041 / 38–4631 / 29–3822 / 19–2915 / 12–2211 / 9–17
RH %61 / 58–6460 / 57–6259 / 57–6159 / 54–6158 / 52–6256 / 50–6255 / 49–6256 / 51–6259 / 54–6161 / 56–6361 / 56–6461 / 58–65

Each figure is the median across the 1046 grid cells holding the 1611 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 986:3771 (40.675, 8.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.9 °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 1046 distinct grid cells holding the 1611 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 986:3771 (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 40.50_8.750, lapse-corrected -106 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 242 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCorse, Sardegna, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Morocco, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey· introduced: Tasmania, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, California
Kew's description“shrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker42.378, 9.188 · in the densest population, 784 records (48% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1631 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 765 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 12 km away. 238 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 20 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1631 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cistus creticusCistus creticusCistus creticusCistus creticusCistus creticusCistus creticusCistus creticusCistus creticus

Photographs: (c) Grzegorz Grzejszczak, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) tylototriton, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Todd Boland, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Daniel Cahen, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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 creticus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Cytotoxic Activity of Labdane Type Diterpenes Against Human Leukemic Cell Linesin vitro
Kostas Dimas, Costas Demetzos, Marios Marsellos, R. Sotiriadou (1998) · Planta Medica
Ethnobotanical Survey of Medicinal Plants Used for the Treatment of Diabetes in the Tizi n’ Test Region (Taroudant Province, Morocco)
Abderrahmaine Katiri, Mohamed Barkaoui, Fouad Msanda, Hassan Boubaker (2017) · Journal of Pharmacognosy & Natural Products
Chemical Analysis and Antimicrobial Activity of the Resin Ladano, of its Essential Oil and of the Isolated Compounds**
Costas Demetzos, Berthamarie Stahl, Thalia Anastassaki, Maria Gazouli (1999) · Planta Medica
Successive Solvent Extraction of Polyphenols and Flavonoids from Cistus creticus L. Leaves
Dimitrios Palaiogiannis, Theodoros Chatzimitakos, Vassilis Athanasiadis, Eleni Bozinou (2023) · Oxygen
Spontaneous vegetation dynamics and restoration prospects for limestone quarries in Lebanon
Carla Khater, Arnaud Martin, J. Maillet (2003) · Applied Vegetation Science
Composition and Antimicrobial Activity of the Essential Oil ofCistus creticussubsp.eriocephalus
Costas Demetzos, Haralambos E. Katerinopoulos, A. Kouvarakis, Nikolaos Stratigakis (1997) · Planta Medica
Cytotoxic and Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Labdane and cis-Clerodane Type Diterpenes
Costas Demetzos, Kostas Dimas, Sophia Hatziantoniou, Thalia Anastasaki (2001) · Planta Medica

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.

Other Cistus 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 59 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.