''Tuberaria guttata'', the spotted rock-rose or annual rock-rose, is an annual plant of the

Mediterranean region In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and wa ...

which also occurs very locally in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The flowers are very variable with the characteristic spot at the base of the petal very variable in size and intensity of colour.

Description

''Tuberaria guttata'' is an

annual plant An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies. The length of growing seasons and period in which they take place vary according to geographical ...

that grows to tall. It has a rosette of basal leaves, each up to long and wide, but this rosette has normally withered by the time the plant is in flower. The stems bear 2–5 opposite pairs of leaves, and a few smaller leaves higher up, arranged alternately. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

comprises around 12 flowers, in diameter. Each flower has five uneven sepals and five yellow petals usually with a dark red spot near the base. The flowers are

cleistogamous Cleistogamy is a type of automatic self-pollination of certain plants that can propagate by using non-opening, self-pollinating flowers. Especially well known in peanuts, peas, and pansies, this behavior is most widespread in the grass family. How ...

, producing little

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

and no

nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...

, and attracting few insect visitors, and the petals fall off after only a few hours. The centre of the flower houses around 20

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s and a single capitate stigma. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

of ''T. guttata'' is a capsule containing many seeds, each long.

Distribution and ecology

''Tuberaria guttata'' is widely distributed in the Mediterranean region, and has a continuous distribution along the French Atlantic coast as far as the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

. Further north, its distribution is very patchy, being confined to a few localities on the west coasts of Ireland and Wales. The best-known of these populations is on the slopes of

Holyhead Mountain Holyhead Mountain (''Mynydd Twr'' in Welsh: from ''(pen)twr'', meaning "tower") is the highest mountain on Holy Island, Anglesey, and the highest in the county of Anglesey, north Wales. It lies about two miles west of the town of Holyhead, and s ...

Anglesey Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...

. These British populations mark the northernmost limit of the species' distribution. ''Tuberaria guttata'' was chosen by

Plantlife Plantlife is the international conservation membership charity working to secure a world rich in wild plants and fungi. It is the only UK membership charity dedicated to conserving wild plants and fungi in their natural habitats and helping peo ...

as the

county flower In a number of countries, plants have been chosen as symbols to represent specific geographic areas. Some countries have a country-wide floral emblem; others in addition have symbols representing subdivisions. Different processes have been used to ...

of Anglesey in 2002. In

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, ''T. guttata'' has become

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...

in the foothills of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

on the eastern edge of the

Sacramento Valley , photo =Sacramento Riverfront.jpg , photo_caption= Sacramento , map_image=Map california central valley.jpg , map_caption= The Central Valley of California , location = California, United States , coordinates = , boundaries = Sierra Nevada (ea ...

. In the Mediterranean region, ''T. guttata'' is common in arid habitats from woodlands to grasslands and roadsides. In the British Isles, it grows "in bare patches of thin, dry soil overlying hard igneous rock in open areas within wind-cut heath near the sea".

Taxonomy

''Tuberaria guttata'' was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

as "''Cistus guttatus''" in his 1753 work '. It was transferred to the genus ''

Tuberaria ''Tuberaria'' is a genus of about 12 species of annual or perennial plants in the rockrose family Cistaceae, native to western and southern Europe. They occur on dry, stony sites, often close to the sea. The leaves are in a rosette at the base ...

'' by Jules Pierre Fourreau in 1868. The Welsh populations were described as a separate species in 1844 by

Jules Émile Planchon Jules Émile Planchon (21 March 1823 – 1 April 1888) was a French botanist born in Ganges, Hérault. Biography After receiving his Doctorate of Science at the University of Montpellier in 1844, he worked for a while at the Royal Botanic Garde ...

. He named the plants "''Helianthemum breweri''", after

Samuel Brewer Samuel Brewer (1670–1743), was an English botanist and contemporary of Dr. Richard Richardson. He is credited with discovering certain species of plant. Life Brewer was a native of Trowbridge in Wiltshire, where he possessed a small estat ...

, who had discovered the population in 1726. This is now considered a synonym of ''T. guttata''.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q159449 Cistaceae Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus