On Crete I found quite a lot of these crawling Malva. Flower looks like M. sylvestris. Any suggestions?

regards

Ruud

I wonder if it might be Malva cretica, or Malva multiflora?

This photo of M. cretica looks a bit like your plant:
https://www.inaturalist.org/ob...

The other images look less like your photo, and I don't know if it's just a variable species or if it might be mis-identified. The person who took the photo is a professional botanist, so for me, that weights the possibilities in favor of it being an accurate ID of a variable species.

OTOH, mallows are kinda weedy (could be an introduced species?), and they hybridize pretty easily, if I'm not mistaken.

I'm no help at all, am I?

First: thanks for your help! And yes, Virginia, you are of help!

I looked (gain ) in both species, but they are not (to different petals, colour, lining on petals and leaves). The I found an article which describes M. sylvestris as creeping... so I stick to that. Not that I am fully convinced so it will be Malva cf. sylvestris. Cf. meaning "i think it could be..."

By the way, this is the article if you are curious: https://cronodon.com/NatureTec...

and a few acorns for you both, although you, as i, am probably drowning in them.

Ruud, thanks for that informative article! I never knew that Malva sylvestris was a low growing, creeping type plant.

Thanks for the acorns too! LOL, I just checked my profile and I have 6,783.79 acorns in my account! I guess I should start shaking that tree and spreading them around!

RuuddeBlock said: First: thanks for your help! And yes, Virginia, you are of help!

I looked (gain ) in both species, but they are not (to different petals, colour, lining on petals and leaves). The I found an article which describes M. sylvestris as creeping... so I stick to that. Not that I am fully convinced so it will be Malva cf. sylvestris. Cf. meaning "i think it could be..."

By the way, this is the article if you are curious: https://cronodon.com/NatureTec...

and a few acorns for you both, although you, as i, am probably drowning in them.

Even wikipedia says M. sylvestris can be grow 3-4' tall or it can be decumbent, and in some places, it's called 'Creeping Charlie' (they do point out that that's also a nickname for other plants, more usually for Glechoma hederacea). If I'd realized M. sylvestris could also be a crawler, it would've been my first guess.

for the acorns...I'm sure I'll pass them back to you at some point!

At least now I know what 'decumbent' means!

Ruud

RuuddeBlock said: At least now I know what 'decumbent' means!

Ruud

Yay! Maybe I was helpful after all!