Archipelago Wildlife Library

Sageleaf Rockrose belongs to the Cistaceae family ⁽¹⁾. It is a shrub that has many branches and reaches almost one meter in height. Its bark has a dark grey or brown color and it is a rough. All the young branches have dense grey hair. The leaves are small, egg-shaped, opposite, with wavy sides and they have a grayish or green color. The upper surface is quite rough while the bottom is smooth, yet covered with thin hair and some obvious nerves. The flowers are white, big and they have five petals. They grow separately or in pairs, near the base of the leaves. Their footstalks have dense grey hair ⁽²⁾. The fruit is called capsula and it is spherical with dark brown color ⁽¹⁾. Sage-leaved Rockrose is the most impressive species of the Cistus genus due to its’ big white corolla which looks like a rose and it is double the size of the rest of the species within its genus ⁽³⁾. All the species of this genus are aromatic and resiniferous, they excrete oils and are covered with hair ⁽⁴⁾.