Annual to weakly perennial herbs, erect to prostrate
Leaves
simple, undivided to palmately lobed, mostly ± suborbicular-reniform in outline
Flowers
axillary, solitary or in few-flowered clusters, small to medium-sized; pedicels short to ± absent
Epicalyx
of 3 free bracts sometimes partly fused to base of calyx, usually shorter than calyx
Calyx
cupular to rotate
Petals
± equalling to twice as long as calyx, emarginate to deeply notched, white, mauve or purple, never yellow
Staminal tube
shorter than petals, divided at apex into many very short filaments
Gynoecium
of 7-16, 1-seeded carpels; style branches as many as carpels, filiform, stigmatic surface decurrent on adaxial side
Fruit
a discoid schizocarp with a depressed centre, separating into 7-16, 1-seeded, reniform, laterally flattened, awnless, indehiscent mericarps with reticulately ridged to almost smooth, glabrous to pubescent walls
Seeds
reniform, glabrous
x = 7 (8, 10, 12) (high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Malva
L.
Linnaeus: 687 (1753)
Harvey: 159 (1860)
Meeuse: 501 (1960)
Henderson & Anderson: 212 (1966)
Roessler: 24 (1969)
Ray: 29 (1995)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 30, temperate and subtropical Old World and New World (Ray 1995), several cosmopolitan weeds, some cultivated ornamentals
Southern Africa
: Species 7, widespread
In Africa the genus is perhaps only truly native in the Mediterranean region
RAY, M.F. 1995. Systematics of
Lavatera
and
Malva
(
Malvaceae
,
Malveae
) - a new perspective.
Plant Systematics and Evolution
198
ROESSLER, H. 1969.
Malvaceae
(in part).
Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika
82
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