Authority:

Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

Family:

Malvaceae

Description:

Species Description - Erect subshrub or sometimes annual herb 0.3-1 m tall; stems with appressed, 4-rayed stellate hairs, the rays 2 antrorse, 2 retrorse. Leaf blades ovate or lanceolate, 2-8.5 x 1-4 cm, the margins dentate, the upper surface usually with simple hairs; petioles 1-3 cm long . Rowers axillary, usually solitary on short pedicels (2-10 mm long); bractlets of involucel 3, linear or narrowly spatulate, shorter than calyx. Calyx 5-7 mm long (accrescent to 8-11 mm in fruit), hirsute; corolla exceeding the calyx, yellow; androecium yellowish, the column glabrous. Fruit oblate, 6-7 mm diam.; mericarps 10-12, setose, 3-cusped (1 cusp apical, 2 on dorsal wall).

Distribution and Ecology - Occasional to common in open areas. Fish Bay (A3918), Lameshur (A3200). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas (fide Britton, 1918), and Tortola; a pantropical weed, from the United States (Rorida, Texas) to South America (northern Argentina).