I've always called helianthemum a sun rose and cistus a rock rose. I see from our database that both common names can be attributed to each. So, made me wonder if it is a regional thing? What do you call each of these plants? (I purposely chose photos whose names conform to my way of thinking, not to bolster my thoughts but just for the eye candy...)

I've always just called the first one helianthemum. I am not familar with the second one

I tend to use the Latin names as well, there's so much confusion with common names. Both are such cheery summer rock plants.

I use botanical names for keeping track of stuff, but when talking about a plant I usually use the common name for a couple reasons: (a) sounds less stuffy especially to a non-gardener, and (b) the chances of me pronouncing the botanical name differently than anyone else is fairly high.

I can relate to the Latin names being very hard , believe it or not I actually took 3 years of Latin in high school
I can remember less than a dozen words and they are simple like boy ...dog ...cat ...horse

As for the rock rose that is what I have called the Cistus
but don't recall ever having the other plant.

Interesting question...
At my house I have helianthemum georgianum... Called crocanthemum georgianum in the back of this site...
Seems nobody has added pics yet. Reckon I need to go through mine...

Anyway, it's my understanding that it's too humid here for cistus. But it remains on my wish list...

I think they're all related somehow.... Or useta be before those taxonomists got busy changing the names...

So....
What was the question?