Flora of New Zealand Series

creeping mallow

Annual herb, procumbent and rooting along stems, sometimes ascending at tips. Stems sparsely to moderately clothed in stellate hairs in younger parts, becoming ± glabrous toward base. Lvs usually ± glabrous above, sparsely to moderately clothed in stellate hairs below, suborbicular to ovate-cordate and acute, (5)-10-40-(50) mm long; lvs of young plants usually shallowly lobed and irregularly crenate; lvs of mature plants often deeply palmately divided into 3-7 pinnatisect lobes; petioles 5-80-(100) mm long; stipules ovate to oblong, 3-8 mm long. Fls axillary and solitary; fruiting pedicels (5)-10-50-(80) mm long; epicalyx segments oblanceolate, < calyx; calyx teeth sparsely to moderate hairy with simple hairs, ovate-triangular, acute to acuminate, = or > tube, somewhat spreading but not enlarged at fruiting; petals bright orange to reddish orange, usually turning purple when dried, 3-7 mm long. Cells 15-25 per fr., setaceous, particularly along the ridged back; dorsal apical angles with a short slender awn. Seeds brown, glabrous or clothed in sparse fine hairs, c. 1.5 mm long.

N.: throughout, common; S.: local in Nelson and Marlborough, vicinity of Christchurch; K.

Tropical America, warm temperate N. America 1870

Waste places, coastal areas, lawns, pastures.

FL Oct-Mar.

Possibly poisonous (Connor 1977).

M. caroliniana bears a resemblance to Malva and Lavatera spp., but is easily distinguished by the bright orange fls and the awned, dehiscent, cells of the fr. It has sometimes been known in N.Z. as M. multifida and was first recorded as Malva caroliniana.