Cistus creticus - Cretan rockrose

Cretan rockrose (Cistus creticus) is an evergreen shrub native to the Mediterranean basin. It is the source of ladanum, an aromatic resin traditionally collected from the coats of grazing goats.

Inputs

• Hardiness zone 7¹
• Hardiness zone 8¹
• Hardiness zone 9¹
• Hardiness zone 10¹
• Full sun¹
• Well drained soil¹

Outputs

• Human food
• Medicinal use

Type

• Shrub
• Evergreen

Functions

• Flammable²

Footnotes

1. Cistus creticus | Plants for a Future ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, “Wildland Urban Interface Vegetation Lists,” 2021 (https://web.archive.org/web/20250504084353/https://ccfd.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/CCFD-WUI-Vegetation-Lists-2021.pdf), rates “Cistus Spp.” genus-wide as requiring 30ft structure clearance; cone-calorimeter testing of the congeners C. ladanifer and C. salviifolius (White, R.H. & Zipperer, W.C., International Journal of Wildland Fire 19(2), 2010, Table 6, after Weise et al. 2005) found both readily sustained ignition ↩