Abutilon hirtum (Lam.) Sweet

Malvaceae, Bernard Verdcourt & Geoffrey Mwachala. Pavonia, B Verdcourt; Kosteletzkya, OJ Blanchard Jr.; Gossypium, P Fryxell & B Verdcourt. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 2009

Type

Type: “L’Inde”, Sonnerat s.n. (P syn., K, photo.!) & Rumphius, Herb. Amb. 4: 29, t. 10 (1743) (syn.)

Morphology General Habit

Usually very sticky slightly aromatic shrubby herb or shrub 0.6–2.4 m tall, stems etc with dense tomentum and usually long hairs up to 4 mm long, apart from the dense yellow to orange basally swollen glandular hairs

Morphology Leaves

Leaf-lamina rounded to ovate, (5–)13–24 × (4.5–)9.5–19.5 cm, rounded to shortly acuminate at the apex, cordate at base, densely tomentose to velvety stellate-pilose, mostly coarsely dentate or with teeth of various sizes; venation ± raised beneath; petiole (1–)2–20 cm long; stipules linear-attenuate, 3–12 mm long

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers solitary in leaf axils running into short terminal clusters or less often narrow panicles; pedicel 1.5–7 cm long including the 0.5–1 cm long jointed part; calyx 0.9–1.8 cm long, tomentose; lobes ovate to narrowly triangular, 4–7 × 6 mm, keeled

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Corolla yellow to orange usually with reddish, maroon or purple centre; petals obovate, 1.5–2.7 cm long, rounded.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium Stamens

Staminal column 5–7 mm long with transparent stellate hairs, the arms swollen at base.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Style

Styles deep crimson

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Fruit narrowed to a concave apex, 1–1.5 cm long, 1.2–2.5 cm diameter; mericarps 16–25, 8–12(–14) × 5–7(–10) mm, the dorsal corner slightly angled or with distinct minute point up to 0.5 (rarely 1) mm, with stellate-pilose margins, (1–)3seeded.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds irregularly rounded cordate, 2.5 mm long and wide, finely papillate and sometimes with simple or stellate hairs.

Ecology

Acacia tortilis bushland on red soil, grassland with scattered Acacia, grassland on black soil, desert lava plains, weed of irrigated land; 250–1700 m

Note

Gillett & Newbould 19185 (Kenya, Northern Frontier District: 1–3 km NE of Mado Gashi, 5 June 1970) was considered by Gillett to be a species near A. hirtum differing in its large fruits, but while I first accepted this conclusion, it became clear it is no more than a form of A. hirtum. Most authors emphasise the ocellate flowers but specimens do occur which undoubtedly have pure orange or yellow flowers. Collectors should make special mention of this since it has been noticed in this genus that even in species which undoubtedly have no visible eye (spot) in life this can develop on drying and is clearly a latent character. A specimen from Kenya, Northern Frontier District: Ol Doinyo Mara, 19 July 1912, Mearns 138, annotated as a new species by Exell, is this species.

Distribution

Flora districts: U1 U2 K1 K2 K3 K4 K6 K7 T2 T3 Range: Pantropical

M. Thulin et al. Flora of Somalia Vol. 1-4 [updated 2008] https://plants.jstor.org/collection/FLOS

Morphology General Habit

Shrubby herb or subshrub up to 2 m tall; all or most parts with sticky yellow to orange basally swollen glandular hairs, also ± sparsely tomentose and often with long simple hairs

Morphology Leaves

Leaves with 2–12 cm long petiole; blade ovate to suborbicular, up to 17 x 13 cm, cordate at the base, acuminate to rounded at the apex, with dentate margins

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers in leaf axils or in narrow panicles; pedicels 1.5–7 cm long

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx 9–18 mm long

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Petals 15–27 mm long, yellow to orange with dark red to purple base

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Column

Staminal column with stellate hairs apically on expanded part and at sinuses between petals, otherwise glabrous

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Mericarps 16–24, 8–11 x 5–7 mm, (1–)3-seeded, dorsal corner angled or with a minute tooth

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds c. 2.5 mm long, papillose, sometimes with simple or stellate hairs on the papillae.

Distribution

S2, 3 pantropical.

Ecology

Altitude up to c. 100 m.

Malvaceae, A. W. Exell. Flora Zambesiaca 1:2. 1961

Morphology General Habit

Large erect herb to soft-stemmed shrub up to about 1·5 m. tall, covered on young parts, stems, petioles, pedicels and calyx with a dense usually somewhat yellowish or brownish usually velutinous occasionally somewhat harsh stellate-tomentose indumentum intermingled on young parts, especially the tips of the branches, with short glandular hairs, and usually on younger parts of stems, petioles and pedicels also with long patent white or yellow hairs, the latter more rarely very scanty; stems terete, the older portions usually stout, at length glabrescent, slightly lignified with a large pith, covered with a thin greyish-brown cortex with close lanceolate-rhomboid to linear markings (shallow fissures or lenticels) often forming an almost continuous pattern.

Morphology Leaves

Leaf-lamina 4–20 cm. long and up to 18 cm. broad, suborbicular-cordate or broadly ovate-cordate, generally drying a yellowish or brownish-green colour, usually markedly acuminate with a narrow mucronate acumen, irregularly and distinctly to coarsely serrate or serrate-crenate to biserrate, occasionally very slightly 3-lobed; finely and harshly stellate-pubescent, glabrescent, somewhat rough to the touch, often also with sessile glands (hence viscid) on the upper surface, more densely and more softly stellate-pubescent and with prominent veins on the slightly paler lower surface; petiole generally as long as or longer than the corresponding lamina, terete.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers yellow, often with a reddish centre, and/or the venation reddish towards the centre, axillary, on main branches and sometimes also on short lateral shoots and often forming a terminal leafy panicle; pedicels up to about 5 cm. long, articulated in upper 11 mm.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx 8–10 mm. long, campanulate, strigose-tomentose inside, divided about half-way down; lobes triangular-ovate, acute to shortly apiculate, ciliate.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Petals c. 16 mm. long.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium Stamens

Staminal tube stellate-hairy.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Fruit 12–15 × c. 20 mm., depressed-globose, broadly and shallowly umbilicate, densely and shortly stellate-pubescent, nearly enclosed by the accrescent up to 14 mm. long appressed fruiting calyx. Mericarps 20–30, dorsally rounded, usually bluntly angled and muticous to shortly pointed near the dorsal (outer) upper side.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds 2–3, verruculose and usually distinctly but finely stellate-pubescent.

Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Distribution

Naturalizada en Colombia; Alt. 0 - 300 m.; Islas Caribeñas? .

Morphology General Habit

Hierba, subarbusto

Conservation

No Evaluada

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation

Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident