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Rock-Rose Family [Cistaceae] |
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28th May 2012, Little Orme, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
An evergreen woody undershrub that grows up to 50cm (but is often prostrate) in grassland on lime or chalky soils (only on acid soils in parts of Scotland) |
28th May 2012, Little Orme, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
With yellow petals. |
Photo: © RWD |
On a near-vertical limestone wall. A straggly plant with broad to narrow lanceolate leaves.. |
28th May 2012, Little Orme, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
Five yellow petals. |
28th May 2012, Little Orme, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
With a dome-shaped cluster of many yellow stamens tipped with deeper yellow anthers and pollen |
28th May 2012, Little Orme, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
Pollen orange-yellow. Single central style tipped with a lime-green stigma. |
28th May 2012, Little Orme, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
Fruit capsule is three valved. |
10th June 2009, extinct railway, Smardale, Yorkshire Dales. | Photo: © RWD |
The top-most flower opens first, leaving the others drooping awaiting their turn. Sepals three wide with two reddish ridges, and two narrower and shorter with a single reddish ridge. |
8th June 2007, Greenside mines, Glenridding, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
Flower buds are hairy and have a distinctive twisted appearance. |
8th June 2007, Greenside mine, Glenridding, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
Although there are five equal petals and five sepals, the sepals are most definitely not equal; There are three equilaterally-arranged wide sepals with two reddish ridges, interspersed by two narrower ones (here partly hidden underneath two of the three wide ones). |
16th June 2010, Little Orme, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
There was one colony where most of the flowers had but four rather than five petals. |
26th June 2019, flanks of Great Orme, Llandudno, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
A flower plus 3 un-opened flower buds above it. |
26th June 2019, flanks of Great Orme, Llandudno, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
The un-opened flower buds have red ridges. |
10th June 2009, extinct railway, Smardale, Yorkshire Dales. | Photo: © RWD |
With Common Rock-rose being a common or garden cultivated plant, it might be expected that there may be cultivated varieties. This, one of many similar flowers found by the garden back gate with distinct orange chevrons on the non-overlapping petals looking more like yellow Greater Periwinkles, may be one such cultivar? On the other hand, wild specimens sometimes have similar orange marks.
It is not the [RR] scarce |
28th May 2012, Little Orme, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
Leaves narrow lanceolate (to broad lanceolate) and said to be hairless above, but actually may have have several glandular hairs. |
28th May 2012, Little Orme, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
Leaves have a single central vein. The four smaller bracts with each leaf-pair are also in evidence here. Older stems tending to redden. |
28th May 2012, Little Orme, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
Leaves downy white underneath, and may, or may not, be sparsely hairy above. Each opposite pair of leaves has four shorter and much narrower bracts pointing upwards (which Hoary Rock-Rose totally lacks). The leaves have very short stems, shorter evem than the bracts. |
26th June 2019, flanks of Great Orme, Llandudno, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
Leaves sparsely hairy on upperside; but densely white tomentose hairy on obverse. |
26th June 2019, flanks of Great Orme, Llandudno, North Wales. | Photo: © RWD |
Common Rock-Rose leaves are longer, narrower and much greener, having only a few hairs on the upper surface (but the underside is hoary again). |
Not to be semantically confused with : Easily mis-identified as : Hoary Rock-Rose (Helianthemum oelandicum), but see below. Hybridizes with : White Rock-Rose (Helianthemum apenninum) (which has white flowers is itself rare) to produce Helianthemum × sulphureum which occurs in just one hectad and is very rare. Some garden Rock-roses are cultivated varieties of this hybrid.
No relation to :
Despite the 'hoary' in names of one of them,, the only two reliable differences between Hoary Rock-Rose and Common Rock-rose seems to be that: [a] Common Rock-rose has short and thin stipules at the base of the stem-leaves, whereas Hoary Rock-Rose does not, and [b] the style of
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Helianthemum | nummularium | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Cistaceae |
Helianthemum (Rock-Roses) |
Rock-Rose Family [Cistaceae] |