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(Last Modified On 3/8/2013)
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(Last Modified On 3/8/2013)
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Family
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MALVACEAE
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Contributor
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ANDRE ROBYNS
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Description
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Herbs, shrubs or small trees, mucilaginous, usually pubescent, ordinarily with stellate hairs, sometimes aculeate, infrequently lepidote. Leaves alternate, usually petiolate, stipulate, the stipules usually caducous, the blade simple or often pal- mately, seldom pinnately, lobed or parted. Flowers solitary or glomerate in the axils, or disposed in terminal, paniculiform, racemiform, spiciform, or corymbiform in- florescences, hermaphrodite, rarely imperfect, actinomorphous, usually 5-merous, with or without epicalyx; calyx valvate, usually lobed, dentate or truncate; petals hypoginous, contorted or imbricate, free or slightly connate together, adnate to the base of the staminal tube; stamens rarely 5, usually co, more or less long-monadel- phous, the anthers 1-thecate or imperfectly 2-thecate, longitudinally dehiscent; pol- len grains large, nearly always provided with spines; ovary superior, with usually 5-0o carpels, the carpels 1- to oc-ovulate, the placentation axile; style usually branched, the branches isomerous with or twice as many as the carpels, infrequently undivided and clavate; stigmas usually terminal and more or less capitate, sometimes decurrent on the style branches. Fruit a loculicidally dehiscent capsule or often a schizocarp separating into dehiscent or indehiscent mericarps, these arranged around a central columella, infrequently indehiscent and woody or fleshy; seeds I-o0, commonly reniform or subglobose; endosperm usually scant or wanting; em- bryo generally curved; cotyledons foliaceous, often plicate.
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Habit
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Herbs shrubs
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Habit
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trees
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Distribution
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A family of about 85 genera and 1500 species which is widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions, reaching high elevations only in the Andes.
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Note
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Cotton is the outstanding member of this family in economic value, and others furnish bast fibers that are used locally. The Malvaceae also include a few esculents such as okra, gumbo or marshmallow, but in general the family is poor in useful plants. The flowers are often large and showy, and species of Hibiscus L., Althaea, L., Abutilon Adans., and other genera are extensively cultivated as ornamentals. At present 17 genera are represented in Panama. The genus Modiola Moench, although not yet reported from Panama, is likely to be found there for M. caro- liniana (L.) G. Don is widely distributed as a weed in all warmer parts of the world.
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Reference
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The American genera of Malvaceae, Am. Midl. Nat. 46: 93-131. 1951,
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Key
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a. Fruit capsular and loculicidally dehiscent or indehiscent and leathery; staminal tube not filamentiferous at the apex, this commonly dentate or lobed (Hibisceae). b. Locules of the ovary 1-ovulate; capsules depressed-globose and prominently 5-angulate ........................... ............. 1. KOSTELETZKYA bb. Locules of the ovary 2- to oc-ovulate; capsules not depressed-globose or prominently angulate. c. Style branches 5, these usually elongate and more or less spreading. d. Calyx regularly 5-dentate or usually 5-lobed, persistent or accrescent .......................................................................... 2 . HIBISCUS dd. Calyx spathaceous, irregularly dentate or lobed, splitting laterally at anthesis, adnate to the base of the corolla and deciduous with it .............................................. -.................. 3. ABELM OSCHUS cc. Style unbranched, clavate. e. Epicalyx bractlets large, persistent; capsules loculicidally dehiscent, the pericarp chartaceous to coriaceous, becoming dry and brittle; seeds numerous .-...............-.. .........-... 4. GOSSYPIUM ee. Epicalyx bractlets small, deciduous; capsules indehiscent, leathery; seeds few. 5. THESPESIA aa. Fruit a schizocarp. f. Style branches and stigmas twice the number of the carpels; staminal tube antheriferous throughout or only on the upper part below the usually den- tate or lobulate apex (Ureneae). g. Petals auriculate on one side of the claw; immature fruit berrylike, the mericarps enclosed in a fleshy envelope . 6. MALVAVISCUS gg. Petals not auriculate; fruit not berrylike or fleshy (but the mericarps with a mucilaginous coat in Pavonia dasypetala & P. malacophylla). h. Leaf veins, at least the midvein, bearing on the back near the base an open, rounded or oblong gland; mericarps dorsally densely glochidiate-echinate. 7. URENA hh. Leaf veins without a dorsal gland; mericarps not glochidiate- echinate but sometimes muricate or aristate. i. Inflorescences subtended by an involucre of expanded or condu- plicate foliaceous bracts, these often whitish or scarious basally in age; epicalyx wanting or the bractlets 9-12 (in M. radiata) ....................... .............. 8. MALACHRA ii. Inflorescences not foliaceous-involucrate or, if so (in Pavonia sect. Peltaea), the bracts not scarious basally; epicalyx always present ............................................... 9. PAVONIA ff. Style branches and stigmas isomerous with the carpels; staminal tube fila- mentiferous-at- and often also below the apex (Malveae). j. Stigmas introrsely decurrent on the filiform style branches ........... 10. MALVA jj. Stigmas apical or very nearly so, capitate, discoid or obliquely truncate, usually distinctly larger than the apex of the style branches. k. Carpels 1-ovulate. 1. Epicalyx of 3 distinct bractlets; ovules erect or ascending .... 11. MALVASTRUM 11. Epicalyx wanting (but a false epicalyx of narrow bracts borne shortly below the calyx present in Sida ciliaris & S. quinque- nervia); ovules pendulous or resupinate-horizontal. m. Petals purple or bluish; mericarps with the lateral walls evanescent, the endocarp detached from the pericarp and form- ing a partial envelope around the seed .............................. 12. ANODA mm. Petals commonly yellow or orange; mericarps with the lateral walls persistent, the endocarp not detached from the pericarp ............................................................1............. ... 13. SIDA kk. Carpels with 2 or more ovules. n. Mericarps more or less completely divided into 2 superposed cavities. o. Mericarps divided by transversal or oblique constriction of the lateral walls ............... 14. WISSADULA oo. Mericarps divided by a transversal, membranous, tongue- like projection of the dorsal wall (endoglossum) . 15. PSEUDABUTILON nn. Mericarps 1-celled. p. Mericarps with 2 stout, deflexed, basal, dorsal awns .16. NEOBRITTONIA pp. Mericarps muticous at the base ...- .............. . 17. ABUTILON
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