The World Flora Online

Herbs annual, biennial, or perennial, usually erect, unbranched, most parts stellate pubescent, sometimes mixed with long simple hairs. Leaves long petiolate; leaf blade ovate to suborbicular, angled, weakly lobed, or deeply palmatipartite, margin crenate or dentate, apex acute to obtuse. Flowers axillary, solitary or fascicled, often arranged into terminal racemes. Epicalyx lobes 6 or 7, basally connate. Calyx 5-lobed, ± pubescent. Petals pink, white, purple, or yellow, usually more than 3 cm wide, apex notched. Staminal column glabrous with anthers clustered at apex; anthers yellow and compact. Ovary 15- or more loculed; ovules 1 per locule, erect; styles as many as locules; stigmas decurrent, filiform. Fruit a schizocarp, disk-shaped, fruit axis as long as or shorter than carpels; mericarps more than 15, laterally compressed and circular with a prominent ventral notch, glabrous or pubescent, 2-celled, proximal cell 1-seeded, distal cell sterile. Seed glabrous or pustulose.

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ALCEA L.

Alcea rosea L., Sp. Pl. 687. 1753; Althaea rosea (L.) Cav.

Hierbas perennes, hasta 2.5 m de alto; tallos pubescentes. Hojas orbiculares o 5–7-anguladas, crenadas, ásperas. Inflorescencias espiciformes sobrepasando las hojas; flores vistosas, subsésiles; calículo de 6–7 brácteas connadas en la base; cáliz tomentoso; corola 8–10 cm de diámetro, de varios colores. Frutos discoides, pubescentes, carpidios 20–40, circulares, comprimidos; semillas 1 por carpidio.

Cultivada como ornamental, zona pacífica; fl y fr durante todo el año; Bermúdez 26; una especie cosmopolita, nativa de Asia Menor. Un género del suroeste de Asia con ca 60 especies.

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Herbs, [annual], biennial or perennial, stellate-hairy to pilose or hirsute or glabrous, [sometimes with some long, simple hairs, sometimes glabrate]. Stems erect, usually simple. Leaves: stipules persistent or caducous, ovate [unlobed] or 2–4-fid, sparsely to densely stellate-pilose; blade orbiculate, angled, weakly lobed or deeply palmately parted, base cordate, cuneate, or truncate, margins crenate-serrate, apex acute to obtuse. Inflorescences terminal and/or axillary, usually unbranched, racemes, often with 1–5-flowered axillary fascicles, elongate, flowers axillary, solitary or fascicled; involucellar bractlets persistent, attached to apex of pedicel, connate basally, 6–7[–9]-parted, stellate-hairy. Flowers: calyx usually accrescent, not inflated, lobes slightly or conspicuously striate, lanceolate, margins entire, apex obtuse to acuminate, densely stellate-pilose-hairy; corolla rotate, white, pink, red, purple, or yellow, darker or paler basally, base densely white-pilose-hairy; staminal column exserted, 5-angled, anthers crowded, pale yellow, glabrous; ovary [15–]20–40-carpellate; ovules 1 per carpel; style [15–]20–40-branched (equaling number of locules); stigmas decurrent, filiform. Fruits schizocarps, erect, not inflated, disc-shaped, dry, central axis equaling or shorter than mericarps, indehiscent; mericarps [15–]20–40, 2-celled (proximal cell 1-seeded, distal cell sterile), laterally compressed and reniform-circular with prominent ventral notch, smooth to wrinkled, hairy [glabrous]. Seeds 1 per mericarp, brown, reniform, glabrous or minutely hairy. x = 21 [n = 13, 21].

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Approximately 60 species, one of which is introduced into the Americas. Mostly erect annual, biennial, or perennial herbs, with stellate pubescense sometimes mixed with long simple hairs, sometimes glabrate. Leaves long-petiolate, the blades ovate to suborbicular, angled or weakly lobed or deeply palmately parted, crenate or dentate, acute to obtuse, lacking foliar nectaries. Inflorescence racemiform or spiciform, usu- ally leafless; involucel shorter than to equaling the calyx, 5-11-parted, connate below; calyx 5-lobed, more or less pubescent; petals usually >3 cm long, apically notched, pink, white, purple, or yellow, spreading to form a showy, rotate corolla; androecium included, glabrous, filamenti ferous at apex, usually pallid and compact; styles > 15, the stigmatic zone introrsely decurrent. Fruit a disk-shaped schizocarp of >15 mericarps; mericarps laterally compressed and circular with a prominent ventral notch, indehiscent, glabrous or pubescent, variously smooth, wrinkled, winged, furrowed, etc.; seeds solitary, glabrous or pustulate. 2n = 42 (several species).

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From the eastern Mediterranean, including southern Europe, to central and SW Asia. One species (A. rosea L., "hollychock" or "vara de San Jose") is virtually cosmopolitan as a garden ornamental. It is sometimes escaped and naturalized.

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