Cistus chinamadensis
Cistus chinamadensis is a shrubby species of flowering plant in the family Cistaceae, with purple-pink flowers, first described in 1991. It is endemic to the Canary Islands, where three subspecies occur on three separate islands. The species has been assessed as endangered in the IUCN Red List, being known only from small separated areas and facing a variety of threats.
Description
Cistus chinamadensis is a shrub, usually tall. The woody stems have dark brown bark that easily frays and strips off. The upper branches have a dense velvety covering of fine hairs, beige to off-white in colour. The oppositely arranged leaves are light green or greyish green, around long by wide, with a pointed tip. The leaves have three prominent veins. Opposite pairs of leaves are joined at the base by a long sheath, the outside of which is furrowed and the inside covered in hairs. The upper sides of the leaves are more-or-less smooth, the lower sides rough and reticulate, to a varying degree between the subspecies.The flowers are arranged in open, slightly branched cymes, with 4–8 flowers to each inflorescence. The sepals have a short tooth, up to long, at the apex and are of two distinct sizes. Two outer sepals are around long by wide; three inner sepals are considerably larger, around long by wide. The petals are pink with yellowish bases, more-or-less rounded, about long and wide. The yellow stamens are somewhat shorter than the sepals. The ovary is high, topped by a style about long. In its native habitat, C. chinamadenis flowers in May and produces seeds in June to July.
Taxonomy and phylogeny
Cistus chinamadensis was first described in 1991 by Ángel Bañares Baudet and Pedro Romero Manrique. The species was first found at Roque de los Pinos near to the village of Chinamada in the Anaga region of Tenerife; hence the specific epithet chinamadensis meaning "from Chinamada". Two subspecies were initially described, C. chinamadensis subsp. chinamadensis and C. ch. subsp. gomerae. In 2005 a further subspecies, C. ch. subsp. ombriosus, was described by Jean-Pierre Demoly and M. Marrero.A 2011 molecular phylogenetic study placed C. chinamadensis as a member of the purple and pink flowered clade of Cistus species, along with some other Canary Island endemics, although the three subspecies did not form a clade, with some analyses separating C. ch. subsp. ombriosus in particular from the other two subspecies.