Family |
Malvaceae
Alcea digitata
(Boiss.) Alef.
Alcea digitata (Boiss.) Alef.
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, p. 510, Pl. CCXIX nº 1; 1966)
Life‑form & habit : Tall, erect biennial to short‑lived perennial, 1 – 2 m high; stems densely coated in a closely appressed felt of stellate hairs, without the long deflexed bristles seen in some congeners.
Leaves : Long‑petiolate and deeply palmately cut almost to the base into narrow, velvety lobes; both faces softly hairy and finely denticulate along the margins.
Inflorescence : A simple, rather loose terminal raceme of almost sessile flowers; the lowermost flowers are overtopped by short leafy bracts.
Calicule & calyx : Calicule faintly striate, divided halfway into acute triangular lobes; tomentose, five‑lobed calyx exceeds the calicule by about one‑third.
Corolla : Large, vivid purplish‑red petals, obcordate, roughly three times the calyx length; petal claws fringed with ciliate‑pectinate hairs.
Fruit (carpels & seeds) : Carpels pubescent, shallowly channelled dorsally; seeds ornamented with conspicuous white tubercles.
Flowering period : Summer.
Habitat & ecology : Sporadic along waysides and disturbed ground.
Native range : Eastern Mediterranean; recorded in Lebanon (Sofar, Jabal Kneissé above ʿAïn Saha) and the Anti‑Lebanon–Hermon region, extending southwards into Palestine and northwards into Turkey.