Monsonia heliotropioides (Cav.) Boiss., Fl. Orient. 1: 897. 1867; Edgew. & Hook. f. in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 428. 1874. Geranium heliotropioides Cav., Diss. 4: 220. t. 113, fig. 2. 1787. Monsonia mallica Edgew. in J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 6: 200. 1862.

Herbs, annual or perennial, prostrate or decumbent, white, 7 - 30 cm high with well-developed rootstocks. Leaves chiefly radical, very variable in shape, broadly ovate-cordate, 1 - 3 x 0.8 - 2.8 cm, coriaceous, densely silky and villous beneath; petioles up to 10 cm with dense spreading white hairs; stipules lanceolate, 2.5 - 5 mm long, ciliate and pubescent. Peduncles up to 20 cm long, patent-hariy; bracts similar to stipules. Flowers 2.5 - 3.5 cm across, umbelled. Sepals elliptic-oblong, ca 5 mm long, enlarged in fruit, up to 7 mm long, appressed-pubescent, membranous along margins; awn ca 0.5 mm long. Petals shorter than sepals, pink; claw narrow. Stamens 15, slightly 5-adelphous at base. Merlcarps ca 5 mm long, narrow-stipitate, hairy, keeled with 2 transverse wrinkles at top; beak 6 - 8 mm long, plumose inside on dehiscence; seeds strigose.

Fl. & Fr. Feb. - April.

Distrib. India: Plants of dry rocky areas, found up to 1100 m.

N. Africa, S. Iran, Jordan, Arabia and Pakistan.

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