Lavatera cretica L.
Cretan mallow
Stout annual to biennial up to 2 m high but frequently smaller, often branched from base. Stems densely clothed in stellate hairs when young, becoming ± glabrous and often woody at base when older. Lvs densely clothed in stellate hairs when young, becoming sparsely so when older, suborbicular, cordate to obtuse at base, shallowly 3-5-palmately lobed and crenate or serrate, 1-15 cm diam.; petioles 1-15 cm long; stipules ovate-triangular, 3-6 mm long. Fls in axillary clusters of (1)-2-6-(8); fruiting pedicels 5-25 mm long; epicalyx segments ovate to broadly ovate, united for lower 1/4, c. ⅔-4/5 length of calyx, unchanged at fruiting; calyx shallowly campanulate; calyx teeth ± = tube, ovate, acuminate, densely clothed in stellate hairs, usually ± connivent at fruiting; petals lilac or pink with darker veins, (8)-10-18 mm long. Mericarps 8-10 per fr., glabrous, ± smooth or faintly ribbed on back and with a single low longitudinal rib; edges usually rounded, rarely ± sharply angled.
N.: Auckland City, Waikato, Coromandel, Napier, and from Palmerston North to Wellington; S.: Nelson Province, lowland Canterbury and N. Otago.
S. and W. Europe, N. Africa, Asia Minor 1940
Waste places, coastal habitats.
FL Oct-May.
L. cretica is often confused with the forms of Malva sylvestris in which the bases of the epicalyx segments are slightly fused. L. cretica can be distinguished by the round-edged, ± smooth-backed mericarps (Fig. 82), the acuminate calyx teeth (Fig. 83), and generally broader epicalyx segments. The related L. plebeia Sims has also been recorded for N.Z. (Allan 1940), but there are no specimens. Nearly all herbarium sheets labelled L. plebeia are referable to L. cretica.
