Flora of North America species comparison

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Malva assurgentiflora

Malva

island mallow, malva rosa

cheeses, cheeseweed, mallow, mauve
Habit Shrubs, 1–4 m, stellate-hairy to glabrate. Herbs, annual, biennial, or perennial, subshrubs, or shrubs, glabrous or hairy, hairs stellate or simple.
Stems

erect to decumbent, base woody.

erect, ascending, or trailing.
Leaves

stipules early-deciduous, lanceolate to ovate, 2–4 × 0.6–1.5 mm, minutely stellate-puberulent;

petiole as long as or longer than blade;

blade free filaments 1–2 mm;

anthers on distal 1/2;

style 6–10-branched (same number as locules), purplish;

stigmas 6–10 (same number as locules), purplish.

stipules persistent or deciduous, linear, lanceolate, triangular, or ovate to ± falcate;

blade orbiculate or reniform, unlobed or palmately 3–7(–9)-lobed or divided, base cordate to truncate, margins crenate to dentate.
Inflorescences

usually axillary, flowers usually in fascicles, sometimes solitary, sometimes terminal racemes;

involucel present, bractlets persistent, 3, distinct or basally connate (or recurved pedicel), not inflated, oblate-discoid, usually depressed in center, around broad axis, without persistent swollen style base, ± indurate, glabrous or hairy;

mericarps 6–15(–20), drying tan or brown, 1-celled, wedge-shaped (triangular in cross section), oblong to reniform, beak or cusp absent, sides thin and papery or thicker, margins usually edged, apex rounded, indehiscent.
Seeds

dark brown, 4 mm, nearly as thick as long, notch slight.

1 per mericarp, adherent to mericarp wall, usually not readily separated from it, reniform-rounded, notched, glabrous.
Schizocarps

12–16 mm diam.;

mericarps 6–10, 6–7 mm, apical face and margins sharp-edged, surfaces smooth to faintly ribbed, glabrous or puberulent on apical surface.

x

= 21.
2n

= ca. 40.

Malva assurgentiflora

Malva
Phenology Flowering Feb–Jun and Sep–Oct, sporadically year-round.
Habitat Coastal bluffs, disturbed areas
Elevation 0–400 m (0–1300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA [Introduced in Mexico, Central America (Guatemala), South America (Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru), Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
North America; Mexico; Eurasia; n Africa (especially Mediterranean region) [Introduced nearly worldwide]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Malva assurgentiflora, traditionally placed in Lavatera, has long been cultivated as an ornamental or windbreak in California and is native only on the Channel Islands. It has become naturalized on the mainland as well as in Mexico and sparingly elsewhere. The shrubby habit, large flowers with dark-veined petals, and thick, hemispheric, fruits make it distinctive; it is our only native species of Malva. The petals are often recurved with age, and the corky mericarps float and are tolerant of salt water. Further study may indicate that there are two distinct subspecies, as suggested by R. N. Philbrick (1980).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Species 30–40 (11 in the flora).

Some species of Malva are weedy; five or six in the flora area generally occur in cultivation as ornamentals or as vegetables and occasionally escape. Some species previously treated within Lavatera (see M. F. Ray 1995, 1998) are here included in Malva based upon molecular evidence. Traditionally, Lavatera and Malva were separated by the presence of partially connate relatively wide involucellar bractlets in the former and distinct generally narrow bractlets in the latter. The annual species of Althaea (sect. Hirsutae Iljin ex Olyanitskaya & Tzvelev) may also belong within Malva, but have been kept separate here. Nomenclature in Althaea, Lavatera, and Malva is still in flux and a satisfactory classification is not yet available. Intergeneric hybrids among some species of all three genera suggest a close relationship.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Shrubs, 1–4 m; petals 25–45 mm; calyces 12–15 mm; mericarps 6–10.
M. assurgentiflora
1. Herbs or subshrubs, 0.2–3 m; petals 3–35(–45) mm (if subshrubs, petals to 20 mm); calyces 3–10(–15) mm; mericarps 6–15(–20)
→ 2
2. Distal leaf blades deeply (3–)5–7-lobed; petals 20–35 mm
→ 3
2. Distal leaf blades unlobed or shallowly lobed; petals 3–30(–45) mm
→ 4
3. Hairs stellate-canescent; involucellar bractlets ovate or ovate-deltate to obovate; mericarps 18–20, glabrous or sparsely hairy.
M. alcea
3. Hairs usually simple, sometimes stellate; involucellar bractlets linear to narrowly oblanceolate or elliptic; mericarps 11–15, densely hirsute apically.
M. moschata
4. Petals (12–)16–30(–45) mm, length 2 1/2–3(–4) times calyx; involucellar bractlets distinct, sometimes adnate to calyx in basal 1 mm.
M. sylvestris
4. Petals 3–15(–20) mm, length 1–2(–5) times calyx; involucellar bractlets distinct or partly connate and/or adnate to calyx (if petals longer than 14 mm, involucellar bractlets connate)
→ 5
5. Involucellar bractlets connate in proximal 1/3–1/2, adnate to calyx, ovate-deltate, ovate, or round; petals 10–20 mm; stems usually erect, rarely prostrate, 1–3 m
→ 6
5. Involucellar bractlets distinct, basally adnate to calyx (in M. nicaeensis) or not, filiform, linear, lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, ovate, or obovate; petals 3–15 mm; stems erect or ascending to decumbent, procumbent, prostrate, or trailing, 0.2–0.8(–2.5) m
→ 7
6. Involucel longer than calyx; leaf blade surfaces densely soft-stellate-hairy; petals rose to lavender with 5 darker veins; stem base usually woody.
M. arborea
6. Involucel shorter than calyx; leaf blade surfaces sparsely stellate-hairy; petals pale pink to white, usually with 3 darker veins; stem base not woody.
M. pseudolavatera
7. Involucellar bractlets basally adnate to calyx, broadly lanceolate to ovate or obovate; petals drying bluish, usually with darker veins.
M. nicaeensis
7. Involucellar bractlets not adnate to calyx, filiform, linear, lanceolate, or oblong-lanceolate; petals drying pinkish or whitish, or faded, veins not much darker
→ 8
8. Involucellar bractlets filiform to linear; calyces accrescent, lobes spreading outward exposing mericarps; petals 3–4.5(–5) mm, white to pale lilac; mericarp margins narrowly winged, toothed.
M. parviflora
8. Involucellar bractlets linear, oblanceolate, or lanceolate; calyces not accrescent, or, if so, lobes usually enclosing mericarps; petals (3–)5–13 mm, pale lilac, pink, pinkish, purplish, to nearly white or whitish; mericarp margins not winged, sometimes toothed
→ 9
9. Stems erect; plants 0.5–2.5 m; leaf blades 3–10(–25) cm; pedicels stout and rigid in fruit.
M. verticillata
9. Stems prostrate or trailing to ascending; plants usually 0.2–0.6 m; leaf blades 1–3.5(–6) cm; pedicels slender and flexible in fruit
→ 10
10. Petals 6–13 mm, length 2 times calyx; mericarps hairy, smooth to slightly roughened or reticulate.
M. neglecta
10. Petals 3–6 mm, length subequal to or slightly exceeding calyx; mericarps hairy or glabrate, strongly rugose-reticulate.
M. pusilla
Source FNA vol. 6, p. 288. FNA vol. 6, p. 286. Author: Steven R. Hill.
Parent taxa Malvaceae > subfam. Malvoideae > Malva Malvaceae > subfam. Malvoideae
Sibling taxa
M. alcea, M. arborea, M. moschata, M. neglecta, M. nicaeensis, M. parviflora, M. pseudolavatera, M. pusilla, M. sylvestris, M. verticillata
Subordinate taxa
M. alcea, M. arborea, M. assurgentiflora, M. moschata, M. neglecta, M. nicaeensis, M. parviflora, M. pseudolavatera, M. pusilla, M. sylvestris, M. verticillata
Synonyms Lavatera assurgentiflora, L. assurgentiflora subsp. glabra, Saviniona assurgentiflora, S. clementina, S. reticulata Axolopha, Bismalva, Saviniona
Name authority (Kellogg) M. F. Ray: Novon 8: 290. (1998) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 687. (1753): Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 308. (1754)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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