4991.010 Alcea L. - Hollyhocks

Herbs, annual, biennial or perennial, usually erect, unbranched, most parts pubescent, sometimes mixed with long hairs. Leaves long-petiolate; lamina ovate to sub-orbicular, angled. Weakly lobed or deeply palmatipartite, margins crenate or dentate, apex acute to obtuse. Inflorescence flowers solitary or fascicled, often arranged into terminal racemes, axillary; epicalyx lobes 6 or 7 basally connate; calyx 5-lobed; petals white, pink, purple or yellow, apex notched. Fruit schizocarps, disc shaped; mericarps >15, laterally compressed, circular with a prominent ventral notch; 2-celled proximal cell 1-seeded, distal cell sterile. Seeds glabrous or pustulose.

Worldwide: 60 species in Central and South West Asia, east and South Europe.

Zimbabwe: 1 cultivated taxon.