Monographs Details:
Authority:
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
Family:
Malvaceae
Malvaceae
Description:
Species Description - A widely distributed, tropical and subtropical, tall, herbaceous but slightly woody plant, densely stellate-velvety all over, with rather conspicuous, clustered, yellow flowers, and somewhat heart-shaped leaves. It ranges northward into Florida, nearly throughout the West Indies, except the Bahamas, through continental tropical America and the Old World tropics, frequent on plains and hillsides in Porto Rico, at the lower elevations, mostly near the coasts. Sida is an ancient Greek name, used by Theophrastus, and taken up by Linnaeus. The genus is composed of about 75 species of herbs, shrubs, and rarely, small trees, of tropical and warm-temperate regions. They have alternate, toothed leaves, and variously clustered or solitary, regular and perfect flowers without an involucre. The calyx is 5-toothed, or 5-cleft, and there are 5, separate petals; the stamens form a column around the pistil; the ovary has but one ovule in each cavity, and the branches of the style are as many as the ovary-cavities. The fruit consists of 5, or more, small 1-seeded, dry carpels. Sida cordifolia (heart-shaped leaves) is upright, from 0.6-1.5 meters high, characteristically whitish-velvety. The ovate, or sometimes nearly orbicular, irregularly toothed leaves are about 8 centimeters long, or shorter, with a heart-shaped or rounded base, the upper ones smaller and shorter-stalked than the lower. The flowers form dense, axillary and terminal clusters; the 5-angled calyx is about 6 millimeters long, with pointed lobes; the yellow petals are about 12 millimeters long. The 7 to 12 fruiting carpels are about 4 millimeters long, aristate, their sides reticulated. There are 14 other Sidas in the Porto Rico, the most remarkable one a small tree inhabiting Culebra Island, and the Virgin Island Tortola.
Species Description - A widely distributed, tropical and subtropical, tall, herbaceous but slightly woody plant, densely stellate-velvety all over, with rather conspicuous, clustered, yellow flowers, and somewhat heart-shaped leaves. It ranges northward into Florida, nearly throughout the West Indies, except the Bahamas, through continental tropical America and the Old World tropics, frequent on plains and hillsides in Porto Rico, at the lower elevations, mostly near the coasts. Sida is an ancient Greek name, used by Theophrastus, and taken up by Linnaeus. The genus is composed of about 75 species of herbs, shrubs, and rarely, small trees, of tropical and warm-temperate regions. They have alternate, toothed leaves, and variously clustered or solitary, regular and perfect flowers without an involucre. The calyx is 5-toothed, or 5-cleft, and there are 5, separate petals; the stamens form a column around the pistil; the ovary has but one ovule in each cavity, and the branches of the style are as many as the ovary-cavities. The fruit consists of 5, or more, small 1-seeded, dry carpels. Sida cordifolia (heart-shaped leaves) is upright, from 0.6-1.5 meters high, characteristically whitish-velvety. The ovate, or sometimes nearly orbicular, irregularly toothed leaves are about 8 centimeters long, or shorter, with a heart-shaped or rounded base, the upper ones smaller and shorter-stalked than the lower. The flowers form dense, axillary and terminal clusters; the 5-angled calyx is about 6 millimeters long, with pointed lobes; the yellow petals are about 12 millimeters long. The 7 to 12 fruiting carpels are about 4 millimeters long, aristate, their sides reticulated. There are 14 other Sidas in the Porto Rico, the most remarkable one a small tree inhabiting Culebra Island, and the Virgin Island Tortola.
Discussion:
Escoba Velvety Sida Mallow Family Sida cordifolia Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 6 8 4. 1753. Sida althaeifolia Swartz, Prodromus Flora Indiae Occidentalis 101. 1788. Sida portoricensis Sprengel, Syetema Vegetabilium 3: 114. 1826.
Escoba Velvety Sida Mallow Family Sida cordifolia Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 6 8 4. 1753. Sida althaeifolia Swartz, Prodromus Flora Indiae Occidentalis 101. 1788. Sida portoricensis Sprengel, Syetema Vegetabilium 3: 114. 1826.
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