Lavatera olbia L.
tree lavatera
Woody shrub up to 2 m high, branched from base; stems densely clothed in stellate hairs when young, becoming ± glabrous when older. Lvs densely hairy with stellate and simple hairs; lower lvs 3-5-palmately lobed, broadly ovate, crenate, up to c. 10 cm diam.; upper lvs not lobed and ovate to oblong, or 3-lobed with mid-lobe much longer, crenate, 2-8 cm long; petioles 1-8 cm long; stipules ovate-triangular, 5-8 mm long. Fls axillary, solitary; fruiting pedicels 6-20 mm long; epicalyx segments ovate-acuminate, united for lower ?-1/2, c. ⅔ length of calyx, unchanged at fruiting; calyx campanulate; calyx teeth ± = or slightly < tube, ovate-triangular, acuminate, densely clothed in stellate hairs, ± unchanged at fruiting; petals deep pink, 25-35 mm long. Mericarps c. 18-25 per fr., ± glabrous or sparsely hairy, smooth on back except for a single low longitudinal rib; edges rounded.
S.: known from one site only, established on a roadside between Rolleston and Burnham, Canterbury, 1964.
W. Mediterranean 1968
FL Dec-Feb.
The wild form in Europe has purple petals but the plants which have become naturalised in N.Z. are garden escapes of the pink-flowered cv. 'Rosea'.
