Sida acuta Burm.f.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Malvaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Erect shrub or subshrub ca. 1 m tall, with distichous branching pattern and leaf arrangement, more or less hirsute to glabrate. Leaf blades lanceolate to ovate, 3-9 x 0.5-4 cm, concolorous, hirsute to glabrate; petioles 2-5 mm long, the apex acute, the truncate, the margins serrate (at least distally); stipules prominent, several-veined, broadly falcate and often exceeding the petiole. Flowers solitary or paired in the leaf axils; pedicels more or less equaling the petioles. Calyx 6-8 mm long, ca. half-divided, basally 10-costate, often ciliate; petals 7-10 mm long, white, yellow, or yellow-orange (often polymorphic for color in a single population); androecium included, pallid; styles 8-10. Fruit glabrous; mericarps 8-10, laterally reticulate, the apical spines variously developed.
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Distribution
A common weed of open areas such as roadsides and waste grounds. Annaberg (M17080), Cruz Bay (A2273), trail to Sieben (A2061). Also on St. Croix, and St. Thomas, and Tortola; pantropical.
Tortola Virgin Islands South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America|