Japanese name: ナガエアオイ（長柄葵） Scientific name:Malva pusilla
[Overview]
A winter annual found in seaside grasslands and along roadsides.
The stem branches in the lower part, reaches 30–60 cm in length, and creeps or ascends.
The leaves are simple and alternate, round, 2–8 cm long, and shallowly 5–7-lobed.
The lobe tips are rounded, and the margins have blunt teeth.
The leaves have long stalks.
Four to ten flowers are borne in bundles in the leaf axils.
The flowers are pale pink with 5 petals, 6–12 mm across.
The petals are as long as the calyx or slightly longer.
The fruit is flat, 5–7 mm across, and divides into 10–11 mericarps; when ripe, the surface becomes depressed in a honeycomb pattern.
Both edges of the mericarps are angular but not winged.
It resembles Usagi-aoi (also called Hai-aoi), but the mericarps lack the jagged edges by which adjacent ones interlock.
[History]
It was first reported in 1951 and has naturalized in various regions, but is confirmed mostly west of the Kanto region.
