Herbs perennial (sometimes annual) or subshrubs, erect. Leaves simple; stipuleslanceolate or falcate; leafbladeovate or lanceolate, entire or sometimes obscurely 3-lobed, margincrenate or dentate; foliar nectaries lacking. Flowersaxillary, solitary or in cymoseclusters, sometimes aggregated into terminal spikes. Epicalyxlobes 3, free, subulate or filiform to lanceolate.Calyx cup-shaped, 5-lobed. Corolla yellow or orange, broadly campanulate; petals 5, scarcely longer than calyx.Filamenttubeincluded within corolla, glabrous or puberulent; anthersclustered at apex.Ovary 5-18-loculed; ovules 1 per locule; styles as many as carpels, slender; stigmascapitate.Fruit a schizocarp, oblate; mericarps 5-18, indehiscent, reddish brown, horseshoe-shaped with a prominentventralnotch, sometimes 2- or 3-cuspidate. Seeds solitary, reniform, glabrous.
Fourteen species: principally in North, Central, and South America, a few pantropicalweeds; two species (both introduced) in China.[1]
Ya Tang, Michael G. Gilbert & Laurence J. Dorr "Malvastrum". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 265, 269. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
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