Biennial or perennial, stems erect or decumbent, to 1.5 m long. Leaves c. reniform to orbicular, cordate at base, c. 3–8 cm long and wide, usually shallowly 5-lobed, margins crenate or irregularly toothed, surfaces glabrous, or usually with scattered simple (rarely stellate) hairs mainly along nerves. Epicalyx-lobes elliptic, 3–6 mm long, attached in lower third of calyx; calyx shortly exceeding epicalyx, obtusely lobed to c. midway, enlarged slightly and the lobes incurved in fruit; petals 12–30 mm long, pink to purple with darker veins. Fruit c. 8 mm diam., mericarps c. 10–15, strongly reticulate, adjacent margins ± smooth, glabrous to sparsely hispid. Flowers Nov.–Feb.
VVP, VRiv, GipP, OtP, CVU, NIS, HSF, HNF, Strz. Also naturalised Qld, NSW, Tas. Native to Europe, North Africa, south-west Asia. A weed of gardens and crops, but rare or overlooked (collected from Yackandandah, Heidelberg, Warragul districts).
Source:
Walsh, N.G. (1996). Malva. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 347–349. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
