Malva Rosa (Malva assurgentiflora)

Photo Credit: Ron Vanderhoff

Global Rank: G1 - Critically Imperiled
Legal Status: N/A
Family: Malvaceae
State: CA
Nature Serve ID: 158855
Lifeform: Subshrub, Shrub
Date Inducted in National Collection:

Description:

Lavatera assurgentiflora is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family. It is a sprawling perennial herb or bushy shrub ranging from one to four meters in height. The leaves are up to 15 centimeters long and wide and are divided into 5 to 7 toothed lobes. The showy flowers have five dark-veined deep pink petals which are somewhat rectangular in shape and 2.5 to 4.5 centimeters long. The disc-shaped fruit is divided into 6 or 8 segments each containing a seed. L. assurgentiflora blooms from March through November. [Jepson]

Where is Malva Rosa (Malva assurgentiflora) located in the wild?

Habitat:

Lavatera assurgentiflora lives in coastal sage scrub habitat.

Distribution:

Lavatera assurgentiflora is endemic to California, where it is native to the Channel Islands. There are fewer than ten occurrences on Anacapa, Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands which are seriously threatened by grazing from non-native species. [CNPS]

States & Provinces:

Malva Rosa can be found in California

Which CPC Partners conserve Malva Rosa (Malva assurgentiflora)?

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

Not Sponsored

Assigned 06/13/17

CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Conservation Actions

09/01/2020

Based on an September 2020 extract of the California Plant Rescue Database, California Botanic Garden holds 2 accessions of Malva assurgentiflora in orthodox seed collection. There are as many as 268 seeds of this species in their collection - although some may have been used for curation testing or sent to back up.

08/05/2020

Based on an August 2020 extract of the California Plant Rescue Database, California Botanic Garden has collected 1 seed accessions of Malva assurgentiflora from 1 plant occurrences listed in the California Natural Diversity Database. These collections together emcompass 10 maternal plants