Malva moschata |
Malva |
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mauve musquée, musk-mallow |
cheeses, cheeseweed, mallow, mauve |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Seeds | 1.2–1.5 mm. |
1 per mericarp, adherent to mericarp wall, usually not readily separated from it, reniform-rounded, notched, glabrous. |
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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. |
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x | = 21. |
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2n | = 42. |
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Malva moschata |
Malva |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Oct. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Disturbed areas, roadsides | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–1300 m (0–4300 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
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]
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North America; Mexico; Eurasia; n Africa (especially Mediterranean region) [Introduced nearly worldwide] |
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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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 6, p. 289. | FNA vol. 6, p. 286. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Malvaceae > subfam. Malvoideae > Malva | Malvaceae > subfam. Malvoideae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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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