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.
Image source: fig 437c in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Keble Martin (1965) Concise British flora in colour, pl. 18.

Distribution:  Waste places, roadsides.   W.Aust.; N.S.W.; Vic.   native to the Mediterranean and western Europe. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: Oct., Nov.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available