Malvella sherardiana

Malvella sherardiana, or Sherard's malvella, is a perennial plant native to Spain and from Greece to Crimea, southeastward to Iran, the only old world species in the genus Malvella.

Description
The plant is a perennial found in fields and waste places (0-1000 m) consisting of many ground-spreading stems, with many round long-stalked leaves (to 50 mm wide) with crinkly edges and sizeable gap at base, and small long-stalked mallow-like solitary pink flowers (10 mm diam), each with five unnotched petals and many anthers. The fruit is a ring of many inflated segments. All parts are densely short-hairy with star-like (stellate) hairs.

The main veins of the leaves radiate from the leaf base to the edge, with secondary veins. The epicalyx at the base of the calyx is inconspicuous, composed of 3 very small (1-2 mm) filamenty parts.

Distribution
Bulgaria, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Greece, Iran, Iraq, Crimea, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Spain, Transcaucasus, Turkey.