Malvella sherardiana, or Sherard's malvella,[2] is a perennial plant native to Spain and from Greece to Crimea, southeastward to Iran, the only old world species in the genus Malvella.

Malvella sherardiana
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae
Genus: Malvella
Species:
M. sherardiana
Binomial name
Malvella sherardiana
(L.) Jaub. & Spach[1]
Synonyms
Synonym list
    • Malva sherardiana L.
    • Sida sherardiana (L.) Benth.
    • Malva cymbalariifolia Desr.
    • Malva humifusa Salisb.
    • Malvella cymbalariifolia Boiss.

Description

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The plant is a perennial found in fields and waste places (0-1000 m) consisting of many ground-spreading stems, with many round long-stalked leaves (to 50 mm wide) with crinkly edges and sizeable gap at base, and small long-stalked mallow-like solitary pink flowers (10 mm diam), each with five unnotched petals and many anthers. The fruit is a ring of many inflated segments. All parts are densely short-hairy with star-like (stellate) hairs.

The main veins of the leaves radiate from the leaf base to the edge, with secondary veins. The epicalyx at the base of the calyx is inconspicuous, composed of 3 very small (1-2 mm) filamenty parts. [3] [4] [5] [6]

Distribution

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Bulgaria, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Greece, Iran, Iraq, Crimea, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Spain, Transcaucasus, Turkey. [1]

References

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  1. ^ a b Plants of the World Online (with map)
  2. ^ iNaturalist: Malvella sherardiana
  3. ^ Tutin. Flora Europaea, vol. 2.
  4. ^ Davis. Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, vol. 2.
  5. ^ Flora iberica.
  6. ^ George E Post. Flora of Syria, Palestine, and Sinai ed. 2, vol. 1.