Common Rock-rose

Common Name: Common Rock-rose

Latin Name: Helianthemum nummularium

Family: Cistaceae

The Latin name Helianthemum translates as Sun-flower. The flowers react to the sun and will only fully open in bright sunshine. The native rock rose has variable petal colours ranging from the more common bright yellow to oranges and paler forms. It is a low prostrate evergreen shrub which produces a mass of short lived flowers in the summer months and is the larval food plant of several species of moth and butterfly including the Northern Brown Argus butterfly. Garden variants are often planted in rockeries and have a much larger colour range.

In the Yorkshire Dales National Park it can be found on limestone grassland and in crevices between limestone rocks. In the summer the bright yellow flowers are a common sight in the limestone grasslands of the Craven District of the National Park.