锦葵 jin kui

Replaced synonym: Malva sinensis Cavanilles, Diss. 2: 77. 1786, not Malva chinensis Miller, Gard. Dict., ed. 8, Malva no. 6. 1768; M. mauritiana Linnaeus var. sinensis Candolle.

Herbs biennial or perennial, erect, many branched, 50-90 cm tall, strigose. Leaves alternate; stipule ovate-oblique, margin serrate, apex acuminate; petiole 4-8 cm, subglabrous, strigose adaxially; leaf blade cordate or reniform, 5-12 × 5-7 cm, papery, glabrous or sparsely strigose on veins, base subcordate to rounded, margin crenate, 5-7-lobed, lobes orbicular. Flowers 3-11-fascicled, axillary. Pedicel 1-2 cm, glabrous or strigose. Epicalyx lobes 3, oblong, 3-4 × 1-2 mm, apex rounded, pilose. Calyx cup-shaped, 6-7 mm, 5-lobed, broadly triangular, stellate pilose on both surfaces. Corolla purplish red or white, 3-5 cm in diam.; petals 5, spatulate, ca. 2 cm, apex slightly emarginate; claw barbed. Staminal column 8-10 mm, scabrous. Filaments glabrous. Style branches 9-11, minutely puberulent. Capsule flat globose, 5-7 mm in diam.; mericarps 9-11, reniform, pilose, abaxially puberulent, reticulate. Seeds dark brown, reniform, ca. 2 mm. Fl. May-Oct.

Mostly cultivated. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [native to India].

Malva cathayensis is very similar to the European M. sylvestris but has pilose instead of glabrous fruit. The ICBN requires the epithets "chinensis" and "sinensis" to be treated as homonyms (Vienna Code, Art. 53 Voted Ex. 9), hence a new epithet is needed for this species.

This species is cultivated as an ornamental; plants with white flowers are used medicinally.