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Cistus monspeliensis; photograph (c) Louis Aureglia, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Louis Aureglia, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-06

Cistus monspeliensis L.

Montpelier cistus; Montpellier Cistus; Montpelier rock-rose; Narrow-leaved Cistus

Cistaceae · Baleares, Corse +16

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Cistus monspeliensis, photograph (c) Julien Fougeroux, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cistus monspeliensis, photograph (c) Frederic Pascual Dose, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cistus monspeliensis, photograph (c) Duarte Frade, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cistus monspeliensis, photograph (c) Mourad Harzallah, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cistus monspeliensis, photograph (c) Dino Babić, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cistus monspeliensis, photograph (c) yellowplant, some rights reserved (CC BY) 72 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
0.6°C
Record low -3.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
682mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
12–47DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes September to February and April, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cistus monspeliensis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cistus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (526 mm of 677 mm) falls in September to February and April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.8 °C against a yearly mean of 16.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to August and October.

Rain

677 mm in the median year at the habitat, 526 mm of it September to February and April. Wettest month December at 96 mm, driest month July at 9 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 493 mm to 934 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 682 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 677 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 0.6 °C, the absolute minimum -3.0 °C, 100 frost nights in 44 years, 2.3 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 2.6 °C to 11.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.4 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -56 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cistus monspeliensis through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 6.2 °C; 677 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost36.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-3.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 12–47RH 56–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 530 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C12 / 10–1513 / 10–1615 / 13–1817 / 15–1920 / 18–2324 / 21–2827 / 24–3227 / 24–3124 / 22–2820 / 18–2316 / 14–1813 / 11–16
Night °C6 / 3–117 / 3–118 / 5–1210 / 7–1313 / 11–1617 / 15–2020 / 17–2220 / 18–2318 / 15–2115 / 11–1810 / 7–158 / 4–12
Rain mm68 / 47–9659 / 41–8651 / 37–7262 / 40–8446 / 25–6924 / 7–479 / 2–2521 / 4–4661 / 24–9587 / 60–12793 / 64–13196 / 56–148
DLI14 / 12–1820 / 18–2429 / 26–3337 / 34–4042 / 39–4547 / 43–5047 / 43–5141 / 37–4531 / 29–3622 / 19–2615 / 13–1912 / 10–15
RH %60 / 58–6360 / 57–6258 / 55–6159 / 55–6158 / 55–6257 / 52–6356 / 49–6257 / 50–6359 / 54–6261 / 58–6361 / 58–6361 / 58–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 530 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (814 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1014:3423 (39.275, -8.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 530 distinct grid cells holding 814 of the 815 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1014:3423 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 39.50_-8.750, lapse-corrected -56 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 74 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBaleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Canary Is., Madeira, Cyprus, Turkey · introduced: California · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker43.686, 3.909 · in the densest population, 428 records (51% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 836 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 814 of them in the land cells it reads, of 815 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 130 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 76 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 21 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 836 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cistus monspeliensis, photograph 1did not loadCistus monspeliensis, photograph 2did not loadCistus monspeliensis, photograph 3did not loadCistus monspeliensis, photograph 4did not loadCistus monspeliensis, photograph 5did not loadCistus monspeliensis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Julien Fougeroux, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Frederic Pascual Dose, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Duarte Frade, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Mourad Harzallah, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Dino Babić, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) yellowplant, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Myrtus communis Myrtus communis Myrtle Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaRuta chalepensis Ruta chalepensis Fringed rue Photo: CC BY, Alessia GuggisbergFilago pygmaea Filago pygmaea Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Mehdi ChetibiUrtica membranacea Urtica membranacea Mediterranean Nettle Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaOphioglossum lusitanicum Ophioglossum lusitanicum Least adder's-tongue Photo: CC BY, Em LamondArtemisia arborescens Artemisia arborescens Hedge artemisia Photo: CC BY, Anis Dris

Other Cistus 29 in the reference

Cistus × aguilari Cistaceae Cistus albidus Cistus albidus Grey-leaved Cistus Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinha Cistus atriplicifolius Cistaceae Cistus calycinus Cistus calycinus Cistaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizCistus chinamadensis Cistus chinamadensis Cistaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel Heras GonzálezCistus clusii Cistus clusii Cistaceae Photo: CC BY, Marc RieraCistus creticus Cistus creticus Pink rockrose Photo: CC BY, tylototritonCistus crispus Cistus crispus Curly rockrose Photo: CC BY-SA, Andy MabbettCistus × florentinus Cistus × florentinus Cistaceae Photo: CC BY, Diego González Dopico Cistus halimifolius Cistaceae Cistus heterophyllus Cistus heterophyllus Cistaceae Photo: CC BY, Abdenour KheloufiCistus × hybridus Cistus × hybridus Cistaceae Photo: CC BY, Duarte Frade all 30 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cistus monspeliensis f. typicus; Cistus monspeliensis var. vulgaris. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cistaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Baleares, Corse, France +15
Wild records
836 in range · 130 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence search API; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 39.50_-8.750, lapse-corrected -56 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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