''Alcea'' is a genus of over 80 species of flowering plants in the mallow family
Malvaceae
Malvaceae (), or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include Theobroma cacao, cacao, Cola (plant), cola, cotton, okra, Hibiscus sabdariffa, ...
, commonly known as the hollyhocks.
They are native to Asia and Europe.
[ The single species of hollyhock from the Americas, the streambank wild hollyhock, belongs to a different genus.
]
Description
Hollyhocks are annual, biennial, or perennial plant
In horticulture, the term perennial (''wikt:per-#Prefix, per-'' + ''wikt:-ennial#Suffix, -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annual plant, annuals and biennial plant, biennials. It has thus been d ...
s usually taking an erect, unbranched form. The herbage usually has a coating of star-shaped hairs. The leaf blades are often lobed or toothed, and are borne on long petioles. The flowers may be solitary or arranged in fascicles or raceme
A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...
s. The notched petals are usually over three centimeters wide and may be pink, white, purple, or yellow. The fruit is a schizocarp
A schizocarp is a dry fruit that, when mature, splits up into mericarps.
There are different definitions:
* Any Dry fruits, dry fruit composed of multiple carpels that separate.
: Under this definition the mericarps can contain one or more ...
, a dry disc divided into over 15 sections that contain seeds.[
]
Species
The following species are accepted:Alcea freyniana
''Alcea'' is a genus of over 80 species of flowering plants in the mallow family Malvaceae, commonly known as the hollyhocks. They are native to Asia and Europe. The single species of hollyhock from the Americas, the Iliamna rivularis, streamban ...
'' Iljin
*'' Alcea froloviana'' (Litv.) Iljin
*'' Alcea galilaea'' Zohary
*'' Alcea ghahremanii'' Pakravan & Assadi
*'' Alcea gorganica'' (Rech.f., Aellen & Esfand.) Zohary
*'' Alcea heldreichii'' (Boiss.) Boiss.
*'' Alcea hohenackeri'' Boiss.
*'' Alcea hyrcana'' Grossh.
*'' Alcea ilamica'' Pakravan
*'' Alcea iranshahrii'' Pakravan, Ghahr. & Assadi
*'' Alcea karakalensis'' Freyn
*'' Alcea karsiana'' (Bordz.) Litv.
*'' Alcea koelzii'' I.Riedl
*'' Alcea kopetdaghensis'' Iljin
*'' Alcea kuhsanguia'' Parsa
*'' Alcea kurdica'' (Schltdl.) Alef.
*'' Alcea kusjariensis'' (Iljin ex Grossh.) Iljin
*'' Alcea lasiocalycina'' Boiss.
*'' Alcea lavateriflora'' (DC.) Boiss.
*'' Alcea lenkoranica'' Iljin
*'' Alcea litvinovii'' (Iljin) Iljin
*'' Alcea loftusii'' (Baker f.) Zohary
*'' Alcea longipedicellata'' I.Riedl
*'' Alcea mazandaranica'' Pakravan & Ghahr.
*'' Alcea mosulensis'' I.Riedl
*'' Alcea mozaffarianii'' Ghahr. & Pakravan & Assadi
*'' Alcea nikitinii'' Iljin
*'' Alcea nudiflora'' (Lindl.) Boiss.
*'' Alcea peduncularis'' Boiss. & Hausskn.
*'' Alcea pisidica'' Hub.-Mor.
*'' Alcea popovii'' Iljin
*'' Alcea rechingeri'' (Zohary) I.Riedl
*'' Alcea remotiflora'' (Boiss. & Heldr.) Alef.
*'' Alcea rhyticarpa'' (Trautv.) Iljin
*'' Alcea rosea'' L. – common hollyhock
*'' Alcea rosulata'' I.Riedl
*'' Alcea rufescens'' (Boiss.) Boiss.
*'' Alcea rugosa'' Alef.
*'' Alcea scabridula'' I.Riedl
*'' Alcea schirazana'' Alef.
*'' Alcea semnanica'' Pakravan
*'' Alcea setosa'' (Boiss.) Alef. – bristly hollyhock
*'' Alcea sophiae'' Iljin
*'' Alcea sosnovskyi'' Iljin
*'' Alcea sotudehi'' Parsa
*'' Alcea striata'' (DC.) Alef.
*'' Alcea sulphurea'' (Boiss. & Hohen.) Alef.
*'' Alcea sycophylla'' Iljin & V.V.Nikitin
*'' Alcea tabrisiana'' (Boiss. & Buhse) Iljin
*'' Alcea talassica'' Iljin
*'' Alcea tarica'' Pakravan & Ghahr.
*'' Alcea teheranica'' Parsa
*'' Alcea tholozanii'' Stapf
*'' Alcea transcaucasica'' (Iljin) Iljin
*'' Alcea turcomanica'' Iljin
*'' Alcea turkeviczii'' Iljin
*'' Alcea vameghii'' Parsa
*'' Alcea wilhelminae'' I.Riedl
*'' Alcea woronowii'' (Iljin ex Grossh.) Iljin
*'' Alcea xanthochlora'' I.Riedl
Uses
Hollyhocks are popular garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...
ornamental plant
Ornamental plants or ''garden plants'' are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars th ...
s. They are easily grown from seed. Breeds with red flowers attract hummingbird
Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...
s and butterflies
Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...
. Cultivar
A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...
s have been bred, especially from ''A. rosea''. They include the double-flowered
"Double-flowered" describes varieties of flowers with extra petals, often containing flowers within flowers. The double-flowered trait is often noted alongside the scientific name with the abbreviation ''fl. pl.'' (''flore pleno'', a Latin ablati ...
'Chater's Double', the raspberry-colored 'Creme de Cassis', and 'The Watchman', which has dark, nearly black, maroon
Maroon ( , ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word , meaning chestnut. ''Marron'' is also one of the French translations for "brown".
Terms describing interchangeable shades, with overlapping RGB ranges, inc ...
flowers.[Hollyhock: ''A. rosea''.]
''Better Homes and Gardens''.
The stems of hollyhocks can be used as firewood, and the roots have been used medicinally.[
]
Pests and diseases
''Alcea'' species are used as food plants by the larva
A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...
e of some Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...
species including '' Bucculatrix quadrigemina'' and ''Vanessa cardui
''Vanessa cardui'' is the most widespread of all butterfly species. It is commonly called the painted lady, or formerly in North America the cosmopolitan.
Description
File:Vanessa cardui MHNT CUT 2013 3 14 Pontfaverger-Moronvilliers Dos. ...
'', the painted lady.
The mallow flea beetle (''Podagrica fuscicornis'') is a pest that makes tiny holes in the leaves. Cutworm
Cutworms are moth larvae that hide under litter or soil during the day, coming out in the dark to feed on plants. A larva typically attacks the first part of the plant it encounters, namely the stem, often of a seedling, and consequently cuts it ...
s, aphid
Aphids are small sap-sucking insects in the Taxonomic rank, family Aphididae. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white Eriosomatinae, woolly ...
s, and capsid bugs use the plant as a food source in hotter and drier conditions. A number of weevil
Weevils are beetles belonging to the superfamily Curculionoidea, known for their elongated snouts. They are usually small – less than in length – and herbivorous. Approximately 97,000 species of weevils are known. They belong to several fa ...
s use ''A. rosea'' as their host plant, including '' Rhopalapion longirostre'', '' Alocentron curvirostre'', and '' Aspidapion validum''.[Wilhelm, G., et al. (2011)]
Sexual dimorphism in head structures of the weevil ''Rhopalapion longirostre'' (Olivier 1807) (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea): a response to ecological demands of egg deposition.
''Biological Journal of the Linnean Society'' 104(3) 642-60.
The plants are also susceptible to the pathogenic fungus
A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...
'' Puccinia malvacearum'', the hollyhock rust.
Culture
The Aoi Matsuri (Hollyhock Festival) is one of the three main festivals of the city of Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
.
During the Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
, the hollyhock symbolized both ambition and fecundity in the language of flowers
Floriography (language of flowers) is a means of cryptological communication through the use or arrangement of flowers. Meaning has been attributed to flowers for thousands of years, and some form of floriography has been practiced in tradition ...
.
The UK National Collection of hollyhocks is held by Jonathan Sheppard in Lincolnshire.
Gallery
File:Hollyhock - Kolkata 2011-02-25 1734.JPG, ''Alcea'' sp.
File:Alcea-setosa--Chotmit--Zachi-Evenor.jpg, ''Alcea setosa''
File:Alcea rosea3 ies.jpg, Sepal
A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106
Etymology
The term ''sepalum'' ...
s
File:Malva negra - Alcea rosea var. nigra - Hollyhock (7448054488).jpg, ''Alcea rosea'' 'Nigra'
File:Alcea Rosea Hollyhocks flower plant.jpg, ''Alcea'' sp.
File:Alcea Rosea Hollyhocks flower plant - Closer look.jpg, ''Alcea'' sp. Closer look at the flower
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Malveae
Malvaceae genera
Perennial plants
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus