Cistus heterophyllus is a shrubby species of flowering plant in the family Cistaceae.

Cistus heterophyllus grows up to 1 m (3 ft) tall, forming an erect, much-branched shrub.

The leaf margins are slightly turned under (revolute) and the veins are much more obvious on the underside.

[1] The specific epithet heterophyllus means "with leaves of different shapes",[5] the upper being unstalked, the lower shortly stalked.

[4] A 2011 molecular phylogenetic study placed C. heterophyllus in the purple and pink flowered clade (PPC) of Cistus species, in a subclade with C. albidus and C. creticus.

heterophyllus is native to western North Africa, along the coastal Mediterranean region from the Spanish island of Peñón de Alhucemas and Targuist in Morocco to Algiers.

carthaginensis is found only in two locations in mainland Spain: near La Pobla de Vallbona in Valencia and in the Calblanque Regional Park in Murcia.