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Lavatera assurgentiflora Kell.

Modern name

Malva assurgentiflora (Kellogg) M.F.Ray

A shrub 3 to 8 ft high, occasionally twice as high in the wild, with downy or glabrous stems. Leaves 3 to 6 in. long and about as wide, palmately five- or seven-lobed, the lobes acute, coarsely toothed, green and slightly downy above, white and downy beneath; stalk 212 to 512 in. long. Flowers in axillary two- to four-flowered clusters; stalks 138 to 134 in. long, curving upwards at the ends (hence the specific epithet); involucre with usually three, lanceolate lobes. Calyx densely white-downy, with triangular sepals. Petals cerise with deeper veins, 1 to 134 in. long. Bot. Mag., t. 9450.

Native of Santa Barbara Islands and Santa Catalina off the coast of California, but widely cultivated on the mainland and sometimes escaping. It is not common in British gardens but has been successfully grown at Highdown near Worthing, Sussex, and in Cornwall. It is resistant to salt-laden winds and is used in California as a windbreak. There it blooms all the year, but most abundantly in the summer.


Genus

Lavatera

Other species in the genus