Lavatera Linn., Sp. Pl. 690. 1753. Gen. Pl. ed. 5.308.1754; Mast. in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 1:319.1874; Hutch., Gen. Fl. 2:553.1967, S. Abedin in Pak. J. Bot. 9(2) :1977.
Annual or perennial herbs, or large shrubs covered with simple or stellate hairs. Leaves petiolate, palmately, deeply or slightly lobed, angular or rarely entire; stipules usually foliaceous, persistent. Flowers axillary, solitary or fasciculate, or in terminal raceme, showy, pedicellate, bracteate; bracts 3-6, mostly fused. Sepals 5, fused. Petals 5, usually emerginate. Staminal tube branched at the apex. Carpels 6-many; ovary many loculed, each locule I-ovuled; style filiform, branched, enlarged at the base; stigmas decurrent. Fruit-schizocarp, usually indehiscent, central axis projecting above the mericarps. Seed solitary, transversely ribbed or smooth, erect.
A genus with c. 45 species, chiefly Mediterranean, but extending to the Canaries, N.W. Himalaya, Central Asia, F.Siberia, Australia and U.S.A. (California). In Pakistan it is represented by 2 species.
