Abutilon fruticosum
Click on each image to see a larger version and details of the record
Image 1
Leaves
16 Dec 2008
Image 2
Leaves and flower bud
01 Mar 2009
Image 3
Fruit
09 Apr 2009
Image 4
Leaves and flower
10 Apr 2009
Image 5
Habit
27 Feb 2011
Image 6
Flower
27 Feb 2011
| Family: | Malvaceae |
| Full name: | Abutilon fruticosum Guill. & Perr. |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | - |
| English common name(s): | Shrubby abutilon, Texas indian mallow, Indian mallow, Desert mallow |
| Synonym(s): | Abutilon albidum (Willd.) Sweet subsp. fruticosum (Guill. & Perr.) Maire Abutilon denticulatum (Fresen.) Webb Abutilon dubium Mattei Abutilon kotschyi Hochst. ex Webb Abutilon microphyllum A.Rich. Sida denticulata Fresen. Sida gracilis R.Br. - non L.C.Rich.-- nom.nud. Sida saltii Steud. NOT Abutilon fruticosum Pen & Rich. ? |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Perennial herb or shrub, up to at least 1 m tall, all parts greyish tomentose with very short stellate hairs, rarely also with long simple hairs. Leaves with 0.5–8.5 cm long petiole; blade broadly ovate, 2–11 x 1.5–8 cm, cordate at the base, acute to rounded at the apex, with subentire to shallowly crenate or serrate margins. Flowers solitary in leaf axils or on short axillary branches; pedicels 1–4(–8) cm long, slender. Calyx 4–10 mm long, divided to about the middle, usually shorter than the fruit. Petals 7–17 mm long, yellow to orange. Mericarps c. 10, 5–9 x 3–4 mm, 2–3-seeded, dorsal angle subacute to mucronate but not awned, tomentose. Seeds c. 2 mm long, papillose. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Somalia) Shrub 0.5–1.25 (2) m tall, much branched, canescent to glaucous-grey with a dense very short velvety indumentum; stems terete, slender, at length glabrescent, woody and ultimately covered with a light brown or greyish bark with short darker linear markings. Leaf-lamina 2–6 (10) x 1.5–4 (6) cm, apex obtuse to acute or somewhat acuminate, margin usually subentire to slightly crenate or serrate, less often more conspicuously serrate, upper surface grey-green with indistinct venation, lower surface paler and canescent with distinct somewhat prominent venation; petiole somewhat shorter or slightly longer than the corresponding lamina. Flowers solitary on the main branches and/or on short leafy axillary shoots; pedicels 0.5–4 (8) cm long, slender, terete, articulated near the apex. Calyx 5–6 mm long, broadly campanulate to cupular, divided to about the middle; lobes triangular or triangular-ovate, mucronate, minutely ciliate, with indistinct median vein. Petals 7–10 mm long. Staminal tube stellate-hairy. Fruit 8 x 10–12 mm, broadly cylindric with rounded base, widely and shallowly umbilicate. Mericarps usually c. 10, broadly keeled in apical half (hence fruit in upper half characteristically furrowed between the mericarps), obliquely truncate-convex at the apex with the dorsal angle subacute to shortly mucronate but not awned, when not yet ripe densely and shortly greyish-green, ultimately grey-brown, stellate-tomentose dorsally and on the apical dorsal area of the flat sides, not turning black. Seeds usually 3, c. 1.5 x 1.5 mm, usually greyish-brown, minutely verruculose-punctate. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Zambesiaca) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
