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mauve musquée, musk-mallow

cheeses, cheeseweed, mallow, mauve

Habit Herbs, perennial, 0.3–1.3 m, hairs usually spreading, simple, sometimes stellate-hairy distally. Herbs, annual, biennial, or perennial, subshrubs, or shrubs, glabrous or hairy, hairs stellate or simple.
Stems

erect to ascending, sparsely hirsute proximally, stellate-hairy distally.

erect, ascending, or trailing.

Leaves

stipules persistent, linear to narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 3–8 × 2–3 mm;

petioles of proximal leaf blades 3 times as long as blade, reduced to 1/2 blade length distally, mid-stem petioles 2 times as long as blade, hairs simple;

distal blades usually round to reniform, deeply 5–7-lobed, lobes acutely 2-pinnatifid, 2–6 × 5–6 cm, base deeply cordate, margins irregularly toothed, apex rounded, obtuse, or acute, surfaces glabrous or sparsely hairy, hairs simple or stellate.

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

axillary, flowers solitary or in fascicles, often appearing short-racemose or subumbellate terminally, long-stalked.

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.

Pedicels

(0.5–)0.8–2.5 cm, to 10–35 cm in fruit, hairs simple;

involucellar bractlets distinct, not adnate to calyx, linear to narrowly oblanceolate or elliptic, 5 × 1–1.5 mm, to 7–8 mm in fruit, length 1/2 calyx, margins entire, surfaces glabrous or sparsely hirsute and long-ciliate.

Flowers

calyx reticulate-veined, 6–8 mm, to 15 mm in fruit, outer surface hairy, hairs both simple and stellate;

petals bright pink to pale purple or white, 20–35 mm, length 2.5–3 times calyx;

staminal column 7–8(–10) mm, glabrate;

style 11–15-branched;

stigmas 11–15.

Seeds

1.2–1.5 mm.

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

Schizocarps

9–11 mm diam.;

mericarps 11–15, black, 1.5–2 mm, apical face and margins rounded, sides thin and papery, smooth, surfaces densely hirsute at least apically.

x

= 21.

2n

= 42.

Malva moschata

Malva

Phenology Flowering May–Oct.
Habitat Disturbed areas, roadsides
Elevation 0–1300 m (0–4300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CT; DC; DE; ID; IL; IN; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MO; MT; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; TN; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC; Europe; sw Asia (Turkey); n Africa [Introduced in North America; introduced also in South America (Chile), 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 moschata is native from Spain to the British Isles, Poland, southern Russia, and Turkey. It has become naturalized in North America, especially in temperate northern and coastal areas. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental and frequently escapes. It occasionally hybridizes with M. sylvestris (Malva ×inodora Ponert) and M. alcea (Malva ×intermedia Boreau). It is similar to M. alcea, from which it can be distinguished by its narrower involucellar bractlets and densely hirsute mericarps.

(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. 289. 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. assurgentiflora, 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 Axolopha, Bismalva, Saviniona
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 690. (1753) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 687. (1753): Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 308. (1754)
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