Althaeus Hemp

The species range covers Central and Southern Europe , the Middle and Middle East (without the African part) and Central Asia ^[2] .

It grows in light, broad-leaved , rarely in pine forests , along forest edges , overgrown shrubs (cotone killers, tree-holders, etc.), especially on stony, chalky and limestone slopes, meadows, rarely in feather grass and grass steppes , as well as in weedy places , roads, wastelands, pastures and parks.

The plant is 50-180 cm tall, strongly twig-shaped-branched. The roots are thickish. Stem mostly straight, cylindrical, pubescent from the base.

The leaves are on the scapes , which in medium leaves are 1–6 cm long. The plates of the upper and, partly, medium leaves are hemp-like leaves, 4–12 cm long, 3–13 cm wide, cut to the base into three lanceolate-oblong, to the base of the narrowed segment, on the edge of large and unevenly serrated; at the lateral segments near the base, departs linearly oblong or oblong, deflected to the side and somewhat downward lobe, because of which the leaf appears to be five-section; the uppermost ones lack the last lobes. Plates of lower leaves, often geranium-shaped, five-segmented, with widely oblong or nearly oval lobes. Stipules linear, falling.

Flowers in the axils of the leaves, single, on long, often deviated pedicels up to 10 cm long, or on long peduncles up to 20 cm long, bearing 2-3 flowers above. The subchashia , 5-10 mm long, consists of 7-9 lanceolate or oblong leaves, by a third, rarely up to half at the base of the fused, pointed at the top. Calyx 8–12 mm long, up to 2/3 divided into widely, less often oblong-ovate, with pointedly pointed lobes at the top. The corolla is red or reddish-purple, 2-3 times as big as a cup. Petals 18-20 mm long and 10-15 mm wide, broadly or oblong-obovate, shallowly grooved at the top.

Fruits 7–9 mm in diameter, consist of 12–16 fruitlets, bare across the back, in the middle with a clear roller and relief transverse wrinkling, 3–3.5 mm high, 2.5–3 mm wide, and 1–2 cm wide 2 mm. Seeds are dark brown or greyish-brownish, reniform, 2.5–3 mm long, 2–2.5 mm wide, bare, covered with light small warts.

Blossoms in June - September. Fruits in July - October.

The Altheus hemp species is a member of the Althea genus ( Althaea ) of the Malveae tribe of the Malvoideae subfamily of the Malvaceae family ( Malvaceae ) of the Malvales order .

• Flora of the USSR : in 30 tons. / Started by hand. and under ch. ed. V.L. Komarov . - M. L .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR , 1949. - Vol. 15 / ed. volume B. K. Shishkin , E. G. Bobrov . - p. 141-142. - 742 s. - 4000 copies