药葵属 yao kui shu

Herbs annual to perennial, erect, ± stellate hirsute. Leaves simple; stipules subulate; leaf blade ovate-triangular or palmately 3-5-lobed or -parted. Flowers axillary, solitary or fascicled, sometimes grouped into terminal racemes. Epicalyx lobes 9, cup-shaped, connate basally, stellate hirsute. Calyx cup-shaped, 5-parted. Corolla lavender or pink, funnel-shaped; petals obovate, less than 2 cm, apex shallowly notched. Staminal column cylindric, pubescent; anthers grouped at apex, brownish purple. Ovary 8-25-loculed; ovules 1 per locule, erect; style branches as many as locules; stigma linear, decurrent. Fruit a schizocarp, oblate or disk-shaped, axis disk-shaped, not longer than carpels; mericarps 8-25, semicircular, abaxially channeled, 1-celled and 1-seeded.

About 12 species: C and SW Asia, Europe; one species in China.

Lower Taxon

• Althaea officinalis Linnaeus