Lavatera maritima Gouan

TSO logo

Sponsor this page

For information about how you could sponsor this page, see How You Can Help

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Lavatera maritima' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/lavatera/lavatera-maritima/). Accessed 2024-04-18.

Glossary

herbarium
A collection of preserved plant specimens; also the building in which such specimens are housed.
involucre
A ring of bracts surrounding an inflorescence.
calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
indumentum
A covering of hairs or scales.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
stellate
Star-shaped.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Lavatera maritima' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/lavatera/lavatera-maritima/). Accessed 2024-04-18.

An evergreen shrub 2 to 5 ft high; young stems densely covered at first with a white, woolly indumentum, later glabrous. Leaves roundish in general out­line, 212 to 4 in. long and wide, shallowly five-lobed, covered with white stellate down on both surfaces but occasionally only thinly so on the upper surface; stalk up to 114 in. long (rarely longer). Flowers borne singly or in pairs in the leaf-axils on scurfy stalks much longer than the leaf-stalks. Involucre much shorter than the calyx, which has triangular-ovate sepals, becoming united in the fruiting stage. Petals pale pink, with a crimson blotch at the base, obcordate, 58 to 118 in. long. Segments of fruits black when ripe, flat or slightly concave on the back. It flowers in cultivation from May until autumn. Bot. Mag., t. 8997.

Native of the W. Mediterranean, including N.W. Africa; date of introduction uncertain.

subsp. bicolor Rouy L. bicolor (Rouy) Stapf – This is perhaps no more than an extreme state of the species, with leaves of above average size and flowers 214 to 212 in. across. It was described from a plant found at Pont St Louis near Mentone, but, curiously enough, specimens in the Kew Herbarium collected near the type locality are ordinary L. maritima and so too are all other specimens from the French coast. Those that best match subsp. bicolor are one from Ventimiglia and two from Oran in Tunisia. It was in cultivation at Kew and in the garden of the Bitton vicarage early this century and Lord Talbot has a fine specimen growing against a sunny garden wall at Malahide Castle, near Dublin.