Althaea ludwigii

Nile region, oases, Mediterranean region, eastern desert and Sinai.

North Africa, Sinai, Palestine, Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, south Africa.

Sandy plains, edges of cultivation.

Annual or short-lived perennial.

Prostrate to decumbent annual herb, up to 35 cm tall, profusely branched; branches stellate pubescent mixed with few simple hairs. Leaves 7-30 mm long and broad, parted, truncate or shallowly cordate at base, sparsely stellate hairy above, more so below; lobes somewhat obovate to oblong; stipules 3-4 mm long, c. 3 mm broad, ovate; petiole 1-5 cm long, stellate pubescent. Flowers axillary, 1 or 2-3 in fascicles, subsessile; pedicel sometimes slightly enlarging in fruit; epicalyx segments 8-10, 4-5 mm long, connate below, linear or linear-lanceolate, stellate pubescent mixed with tubercled simple hairs. Calyx slightly exceeding the epicalyx, basally connate, enlarged in fruit, somewhat inflated and enclosing, densely stellate pubescent, mixed with simple tubercled hairs, hispid; lobes lanceolate to ovate, acuminate. Corolla up to 1.5 times the length of calyx, white. Staminal tube 2-3 mm long, pubescent. Fruit depressed globose, 4-5 mm across, pubescent; mericarps chartaceous, usually 8-10, 2-2.5 mm across, dorsally 1 mm broad, grooved, with prominent longitudinal nerve, smooth, sharp margined, sides striately wrinkled; torus hairy. Seeds 1 mm across, brown, glabrous.

Distribution: Russia, W. Asia, Mediterranean region, S. Africa and Pakistan (common in Baluchistan).