On Tue, 5 Sep 2006 18:35:53 +0100, Stewart Robert Hinsley
wrote:

In message , Osiris
writes
Could someone please tell me what this is :

http://www.terwiel.com/diversen/DSCN0636.JPG
http://www.terwiel.com/diversen/DSCN0637.JPG (mature flower)

the flower seems to have 12 styles/sigmas and a lot of stamen,
that seem only to differentiate in a mature flowers.

5 petals
2 x 5 sepals
leafs stand singel on the stem
plant 2 ft high (60 cm)
No woody parts.

petals have dark purple veins and lighter purple borders.
on other plants, the border of the petal may be almost white.

Malva sylvestris. Neither looks like a pure seed strain, but the first
flower bears resemblances to the Mauritiana group, and the second to
'Zebrina'. (I could being misled by the darkness of the photograph.)

If you look again at the flowers you should find one ring of 3 (not 5)
bracteoles (epicalyx) and one ring of 5 sepals (calyx).


indeed 3+5
12 styles

The number of stamens is variable in Malva sylvestris (I've got one
plant which is estaminate or nearly so), but the general run have more
stamens than your image.

I have yet counted mericarps for a wide variety of accessions but I've
been getting more counts of 10 than 12 (the number of style arms and
mericarps should be the same, and the latter is easier to count).

Well grown plants can be much larger; the books say 3 ft for northern
Europe and 4 feet for the Mediterranean, but I know of one (wild?) plant
which has reached 9 feet, and have seen cultivated plants in excess of 6
ft.