White steppe. Estepa d'escurar. Cistus albidus L.

The white steppe is a plant that grows on the slopes of Puig Campana. It is very eye-catching and it is the one that Manuel Mayor Rabasa, El Beato, has chosen for this month of May. Thanks to the generosity of this scholar of the flora of Finestrat, it is possible to know more about the flowers that grow in this town in the Marina Baixa.

Did you know???

My popular name "white steppe" is not given to me because of the color of my flowers which are pink. You will rarely find specimens with white flowers. The main reason for my name will be found in the Latin epithet "albidus" which means whitish, given the abundant fuzz of this color that covers my leaves and stems, which allows me to:

• Repel the sun's rays, reducing perspiration and, in this way, being able to resist the high summer temperatures.
• Prevent herbivores, such as the arruí, from eating my leaves.

To withstand the heat wave, the abrasive heat of summer, I detach part of my leaves to avoid losing water through evaporation, as I perspire through them; otherwise my survival would be seriously compromised.

In times of great scarcity, such as the period before and after the Spanish Civil War, my sheets were used as:

-A substitute for tobacco, an imported product that was within the reach of a privileged few. To do this, they were dried and pounded in a mortar.

- Scouring pads, mixing them with water and soil, to scrub paellas, frying pans...

-Substitute for the current "toilet paper" by shepherds and peasants, much softer than a stone.