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Cape Mallow

Anisodontea capensis

Description:

A woody shrub about 160cm high with tiny pale 5-petalled purple flowers. The plant shows every characteristic of the Malvaceae family. Flowers had a central cluster of stamens with black anthers. There appeared to be several pistils. Leaves were trilobed and arrangement, alternate.

Habitat:

This plant is native to South Africa. Obviously an ornamental here, it had escaped somebody's garden. I spotted this on a vacant piece of land with other shrubs. It was in a shady spot beside a gully.

Notes:

Very pretty little flowers that I normally just admire and walk past. Today I noticed that I actually had the opportunity to look close - I found the black anthers rather attractive ! I would like to know if the flowers and leaves are used for anything...more research coming-up! http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showima... http://www.flickr.com/photos/louisejoly/...

No species ID suggestions

3 Comments

Bernadette S
Bernadette S 10 months ago

Hhhmmm. That's interesting. Thanks for reporting on that!

Leuba
Leuba 10 months ago

Bernadette S -couldn't find anything on medicinal or culinary uses for this plant in available resources- not even bush medicine.

Bernadette S
Bernadette S 10 months ago

I agree, those black anthers are beautiful! Looking forward to see what you find out about the plant.

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Lat: -37.89, Long: 145.31

Spotted on Aug 5, 2012
Submitted on Aug 5, 2012

Spotted for mission

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False Mallow

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