Family: Malvaceae
Lavatera cretica
Citation:
L., Sp. Pl. 691 (1753).
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Cretan hollyhock, lesser tree mallow, Cretan mallow.
Description:
Herbaceous erect perennial 0.5-1.5 m high, stellate-velutinous; leaves orbicular, 3-10 cm long, cordate, with 5-7 rounded to acute lobes, serrate to crenate-serrate, on long petioles.
Peduncles 0.5-2.5 rarely 5 cm long, spreading, sometimes distally ascending; epicalyx segments shorter than the calyx, not enlarging after flowering; calyx broad-campanulate, 5-9 mm long, after flowering the tube enlarging but not exceeding the schizocarp, the lobes incurved and appressed on the schizocarp, with the arms of the stellate hairs 0.5-1 rarely 1.5 mm long; corolla lilac-pink, 2 or 3 times the length of the calyx.
Mericarps 8-10, possibly rarely 7 or 11, 2-3.5 mm long, the upper surface rounded, smooth or with scattered transverse-wrinkles, with margins rounded to sharp, crenulate.
| Lavatera cretica twig, leaf and mericarp.
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Image source: fig 437c in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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Published illustration:
Keble Martin (1965) Concise British flora in colour, pl. 18.
Distribution:
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Waste places, roadsides.
W.Aust.; N.S.W.; Vic. native to the Mediterranean and western Europe.
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Conservation status:
naturalised
Flowering time: Oct., Nov.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Author:
Not yet available
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