This is a delicate little branching plant which trails in summer-time
along the ground, on grassy hills, and among rocks and gravel.
The flowers grow singly on short stalks, and each flower has five bright
yellow petals which lie flat open. These petals are not stiff and glossy
like those of the Buttercup, but soft and easily crinkled like the Poppy
petals.
If you touch very lightly the yellow stamens in the centre of the
flower, they will spread out and lie down.
The Rock Rose has five little green sepals. Three of these have their
tips slightly tinged with pink, and these pink-tinged sepals are large
enough to cover the flower when it is in bud. The other two are much
smaller, with sharply-pointed tips, and they grow at the end of the
little flower-stalk behind the pinky sepals.
The leaves of the Rock Rose are long and narrow with smooth edges, and
they grow opposite each other on the stem.
These leaves are always dark green above, but underneath they are
covered with fine white woolly down, and if you hold them up to the
light you will see that the edges are fringed with soft hairs.