Malva neglecta Wallr.
dwarf mallow
Annual or short-lived perennial, procumbent to ascending herb. Stems sparsely to densely clothed in stellate hairs. Lvs sparsely to moderately clothed in mostly stellate hairs above, densely hairy below, reniform to orbicular, cordate, shallowly 5-7-palmately lobed and crenate, 1-7-(8) cm diam.; petioles (2)-4-20 cm long; stipules triangular, 3-6 mm long. Fls in axillary clusters of 2-5; fruiting pedicels 1-8 cm long; epicalyx segments linear to narrowly ovate-oblong, < calyx; calyx teeth ovate-triangular, acuminate, with stellate hairs and ciliate, not enlarged at fruiting; petals white to lilac, often with lilac to pink veins, usually at least twice as long as calyx, (7)-8-15 mm long. Mericarps 12-15 per fr., hairy, rarely sparsely so, smooth or faintly reticulate on back; edges sharply angled but not winged.
N.: throughout; S.: E. areas from Marlborough Sounds to Southland, common; Ch.
Europe, S.W. Asia, N.W. Africa 1867
Waste places, pasture, cultivated land, riverbeds.
FL Aug-Apr.
The smooth-backed mericarps clothed in short hairs (Fig. 84) distinguish this sp. It has often been recorded in N.Z. as M. rotundifolia.
