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Cistus ocymoides; photograph Duarte Frade, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYDuarte Frade, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Cistus ocymoides Lam.

Basil-leaved Rockrose

Cistaceae · Portugal, Spain +1

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Cistus ocymoides Lam.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Brot.

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Cistus ocymoides, photograph Duarte Frade, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCistus ocymoides, photograph Duarte Frade, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCistus ocymoides, photograph Duarte Frade, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCistus ocymoides, photograph Duarte Frade, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCistus ocymoides, photograph Duarte Frade, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCistus ocymoides, photograph Duarte Frade, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-4.0°C
Record low -7.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
788mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
12–49DLI
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 October 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 ocymoides (syn. Halimium ocymoides), the basil-leaved rock rose, is a species of flowering plant in the family Cistaceae, native to Portugal and Spain in the Iberian Peninsula, and northern Morocco in Northwest Africa. It is an erect evergreen shrub growing to 60 cm (24 in) tall by 100 cm (3 ft) wide, with woolly grey-green leaves and bright yellow flowers in spring. The flowers may have a dark brown blotch at the base of each petal.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cistus ocymoides", 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 (588 mm of 808 mm) falls in October to February and April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 10.5 °C against a yearly mean of 14.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to August and October.

Rain

808 mm in the median year at the habitat, 588 mm of it October to February and April. Wettest month December at 133 mm, driest month July at 10 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 613 mm to 1,267 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 788 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 808 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 49 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 -4.0 °C, the absolute minimum -7.3 °C, 1,460 frost nights in 44 years, 33.2 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 3.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -0.4 °C to 6.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.0 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.0 °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: 51 to 64% 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 +278 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 ocymoides through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 3.2 °C; 808 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°frost38.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-7.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 12–49RH 51–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 514 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 °C11 / 7–1413 / 9–1516 / 12–1917 / 14–2021 / 17–2326 / 23–2829 / 26–3229 / 26–3226 / 22–2820 / 16–2215 / 11–1812 / 8–15
Night °C3 / 0–64 / 0–76 / 2–97 / 3–1010 / 7–1214 / 11–1616 / 14–1817 / 14–1915 / 11–1711 / 7–137 / 3–105 / 1–8
Rain mm90 / 59–15373 / 51–12058 / 43–9378 / 62–12268 / 46–10231 / 14–5010 / 3–2212 / 5–2941 / 31–68102 / 75–169112 / 74–167133 / 91–207
DLI14 / 12–1620 / 18–2229 / 27–3135 / 33–3741 / 39–4347 / 45–4949 / 46–5143 / 41–4533 / 31–3522 / 20–2515 / 13–1712 / 10–14
RH %63 / 61–6561 / 59–6358 / 55–6058 / 55–6157 / 53–6254 / 48–6051 / 44–5951 / 45–5954 / 50–6060 / 56–6262 / 60–6464 / 62–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 514 grid cells holding the 805 in-range records, 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 1013:3451 (39.325, -7.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.8 °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 514 distinct grid cells holding 805 of the 805 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1013:3451 (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_-7.500, lapse-corrected +278 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 572 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.
NativePortugal, Spain, Morocco · 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 marker39.919, -7.912 · in the densest population, 730 records (77% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 948 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 805 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 164 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 19 km away. 143 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 3596000 (Halimium ocymoides (Lam.) Willk.): Kew's file holds it as Halimium ocymoides (Lam.) Willk. (synonym under Cistus ocymoides Lam.); 899 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 948 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 ocymoides, photograph 1did not loadCistus ocymoides, photograph 2did not loadCistus ocymoides, photograph 3did not loadCistus ocymoides, photograph 4did not loadCistus ocymoides, photograph 5did not loadCistus ocymoides, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Duarte Frade, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (6).

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

Rumex induratus Rumex induratus Indurate Sorrel Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaPimpinella villosa Pimpinella villosa Iberian burnet saxifrage Photo: CC BY, David PereiraAristolochia paucinervis Aristolochia paucinervis Aristolochiaceae Photo: CC BY, Sara NavarroHyacinthoides hispanica Hyacinthoides hispanica Spanish bluebell Photo: CC BY, Sandy WolkenbergIris xiphium Iris xiphium Spanish iris Photo: CC BY, Duarte FradeSilene scabriflora Silene scabriflora Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Michael Bakker Paiva

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 Halimium ocymoides; Cistus algarvensis; Cistus involucratus; Cistus ocymoides var. sampsucifolius; Cistus sampsucifolius and 32 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Cistaceae
Described by
Lam.
Native to
Portugal, Spain, Morocco
Wild records
948 in range · 164 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 2026-10-21GBIF's key 7331298 is Cistus ocymoides Brot.; Kew accepts Cistus ocymoides Lam., and the name is cited as Kew accepts it; its synonyms and common names are read from GBIF's Cistus ocymoides Lam. (7646906), which GBIF files under Halimium ocymoides (Lam.) Willk. (3596000) too
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-2142 read from GBIF's Cistus ocymoides Lam. (7646906), which GBIF files under Halimium ocymoides (Lam.) Willk. (3596000)
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 download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 899 records of GBIF's key 3596000, Halimium ocymoides (Lam.) Willk. (Kew's file holds it as Halimium ocymoides (Lam.) Willk. (synonym under Cistus ocymoides Lam.)): GBIF occurrence search API; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a zoo; 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_-7.500, lapse-corrected +278 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21found by its label; its IPNI identifier 168396-1 is Kew's for Cistus ocymoides Lam.
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21read from the page's key and its other keys: 39 from GBIF's key 3596000
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 38 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…