Though it usually has pink flowers, of 4.5–5 cm diameter, this species is very variable.

(The true Cistus × incanus is the hybrid C. albidus × C.

[2]) It is native to the central and eastern Mediterranean Basin, including Morocco, Corsica and Sardinia, Italy and southeastern Europe, Turkey, and the Levant.

[3] Confusion exists between this name and one published earlier by Linnaeus, Cistus incanus.

Cistus creticus belongs to the clade of species with purple and pink flowers (the "purple pink clade" or PPC), in a subclade with C. heterophyllus and C. albidus.