Alcea digitata

Alcea digitata, the fingered hollyhock,^[2] is a tall hollyhock with large flowers native to the Middle East.

Alcea digitata
Small plant flowering in Antalya
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Malvales
Family:	Malvaceae
Genus:	Alcea
Species:	A. digitata
Binomial name
Alcea digitata (Boiss.) Alef.[1]
Synonyms
Synonym list Althaea digitata Boiss. Alcea leiocarpa (Sam.) Althaea leiocarpa Sam.

Description

A medium to tall (up to 3 m), hairy hollyhock with large, pinkish, or pale flowers (petals to 50 mm). The leaves (particularly upper ones) are distinctively divided into spreading finger-like lobes whose edges are irregular and at times sublobed, the lobes at the base of the leaf tending to point rather backward. Whilst the leaf-end lobe is larger than the others but not hugely so. The low leaves can be well-divided into fingers or just shallowly lobed.

The stem is narrow (to 12 mm) and branched only at the base.The hairs are star-like (sparse or dense). When tall, its height mostly comprises a long flower stalk with little leafage. It is found at roadsides, fields, rocky slopes, steppe, and maquis.

The epicalyx is large (>=50% calyx). The fruit segments with wingless edges, conspicuously wrinkled, pilose hairy (the sides sparsely).^[3][4]

Distribution

The plant's range includes Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey.^[1] In Turkey, it has been found growing at an elevation range of 20–2400 metres.

Botanical photographs

Photographs from Antalya unless indicated.

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  Typical look in flower
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  Typical look in flower
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  Topmost flowers
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  Growing plant
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  Growing plant
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  Leaf shape with end lobe only a little longer and base-lobes backward-pointing
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  Flower side, showing stellate large epicalyx (>=50% calyx)
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  Flower underside
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  Floral organs in flower centre
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  Petal base showing hairs
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  Buds, with smaller stellate hairs and large epicalyx
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  Buds, with smaller stellate hairs and large epicalyx
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  Calyx with stellate hairs
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  Flower stalk
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  Leaf with narrower lobes
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  Leaf with broader lobes (lowest leaves may be very shallow-lobed)
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  Leaf underside with coarse and fine stellate hairs (upper leaves less coarsely)
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  Leaf upperside
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  Leaf stalk with coarser hairs
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  Stem with coarser hairs
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  Stem with sparse hairs
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  Stem with coarse and many less coarse hairs
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  Inflorescence stem with less coarse hairs
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  Exceptionally tall plant, in flower
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  Exceptionally tall plant (reaching just beyond top of photo)