Marshmallow

It is a rare species in Pakistan.

The roots are used medicinally. They are also the source of mucilage used for confections.

Perennial erect herbs. Branches densely tomentose, velutinous. Leaves 3-5 cm long, 2-4 cm broad, triangular to broadly ovate, rounded or truncate at base, acute to acuminate at apex, irregularly serrate to crenate or dentate, sometimes shallowly 3-lobed, densely pubescent and velutinous on both sides, more so beneath; stipules linear or linear-lanceolate, 3-5 mm long; petiole 1-5 cm long. Flowers axillary. fascicled on common peduncle, equalling or slightly exceeding the petiole; pedicels short, 2-10 mm long. Epicalyx segments 8-12, 3-5 mm long. Calyx 6-10 mm long, fused below the middle, enclosing fruit; lobes lanceolate to ovate, acuminate. Corolla pinkish or almost white, 2-3 cm across; petals 1-2 cm long 0.5-1.5 cm broad, obovate, slightly notched at apex, claw ciliate on the margin. Fruit 7-8 mm across, globular, pubescent; mericarps 15-25, 3-3.5 mm long, laterally 2.5-3 mm broad, dorsallyl-1.5 mm broad. Seeds 2-2.5 mm across, reniform, dark brown, glabrous, smooth.

Herbs perennial, erect, ca. 1 m tall; stem densely stellate hirsute. Petiole 1-4 cm, stellate tomentose; leaf blade ovate-orbicular or cordate, 3-lobed or not lobed, 3-8 × 1.5-6 cm, papery, both surfaces densely stellate tomentose, base nearly cordate or rounded, margin bluntly dentate, apex acute. Epicalyx lobes 9, lanceolate, ca. 4 mm, densely stellate strigose. Calyx cup-shaped, persistent, 5-parted, longer than epicalyx, densely stellate hirsute, lobes lanceolate. Corolla pink, ca. 2.5
cm in diam.; petals ca. 1.5 cm, obovate-oblong. Staminal column ca. 8 mm. Ovary 15-25-loculed. Fruit a disk-shaped schizocarp, ca. 8 mm in diam., enclosed by calyx, puberulent. Seeds reniform. Fl. Jul.

Distribution: Europe, Palestine, Syrian Desert, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Riverbanks. Native in Xinjiang (Tacheng); cultivated in Beijing, Jiangsu (Nanjing), Shaanxi (Xi’an), and Yunnan (Kunming) [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia, Europe].

Althaea kragujevacensis Pančić ex N. Diklić & V. Stevanovic; A. micrantha Borbás; A. sublobata Stokes; A. taurinensis Candolle; A. vulgaris Bubani; Malva althaea E. H. L. Krause; M. maritima Salisbury; M. officinalis (Linnaeus) Schimper & Spenner.