Alcea rosea L.

In Pakistan it is extensively cultivated throughout.

Alcea rosea originated in the SW provinces of China and has been grown in Europe since at least the 15th century. It is cultivated as an
ornamental and is used medicinally. It is not known from any truly wild situations.

Erect annual herbs, 1-2.5 m tall. Stem rough stellate hairy, glabrescent. Leaves long petioled, large, round or ovate, at base cordate, at apex rounded, entire to 5-7 lobed, upper 3-lobed, crenate to dentate, scabrous and stellate pubescent on both sides. Flowers axillary, solitary or 2-3 in fascicles, spike like because of short pedicel in terminal branches, pedicel enlarged in fruit. Epicalyx segments 6-7, 1.5 cm long or more, fused below the middle, lanceolate to ovate. Calyx up to 1.5 times longer than epicalyx, both epicalyx and calyx stellate pubescent, scabrous. Corolla 5-7 cm across, of various colours; petals 4-7 cm long. Fruit depressed, globose; pubescent, enclosed by calyx, ± 2 cm across; mericarps 2C-40, channeled and winged dorsally, 5-7 mm across, back 1.5 mm broad.

Herbs biennial, erect, to 2(-3) m tall; stem densely hirsute. Stipules ovate, ca. 8 mm, apically 3-lobed; petiole 5-15 cm, stellate hirsute; leaf blade nearly orbicular, palmately 5-7-lobed or crenate-angled, 6-16 cm in diam., papery, abaxially long stellate hirsute or stellate tomentose, adaxially sparsely stellate pilose, lobes triangular or rounded, central lobe ca. 3 × 4-6 cm. Flowers solitary or fascicled, aggregated into a terminal, spikelike inflorescence. Bracts foliaceous. Pedicel ca. 5 mm, 8-10 mm in fruit, stellate hirsute. Epicalyx cup-shaped, usually 6- or 7-lobed, 8-10 mm, densely stellate hirsute, lobes ovate-lanceolate. Calyx campanulate, 2-3 cm in diam., lobes ovate-triangular, 1.2-1.5 cm, densely stellate hirsute. Corolla red, purple, white, pink, yellow, or black-purple, 6-10 cm in diam., sometimes double; petals obovate-triangular, ca. 4 cm, base attenuate, claw tipped with long thin hairs, apex emarginate. Staminal column glabrous, ca. 2 cm; filaments ca. 2 mm. Style branches many, puberulent. Schizocarp disk-shaped, ca. 2 cm in diam., puberulent; mericarps many, nearly orbicular, longitudinally grooved. Fl. Feb-Aug.

Of uncertain origin. Extensively cultivated.

Distribution: According to Zohary (l.c.) “wild Alcea rosea L. seems to be indigenous almost exclusively on the Aegean islands and the adjacent Balkan Peninsula. The areas of its origin are no doubt the north-eastern Mediterranean countries, but not China which is beyond the natural range of the genus”. Elsewhere cultivated.

● Cultivated. Throughout China [widely introduced throughout temperate regions].

Althaea rosea (Linnaeus) Cavanilles; A. rosea var. sinensis (Cavanilles) S. Y. Hu; A. sinensis Cavanilles.