Pavonia intermedia A.St.-Hil.

Authority

Fryxell, Paul A. 1999. Cavanilles (Malvaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 76: 1-284. (Published by NYBG Press)

Family

Malvaceae

Scientific Name

Pavonia intermedia A.St.-Hil.

Type

Type. Brazil. Minas Gerais: Near Itajuru, not far from Sao Miguel de Mato, St.-Hilaire 555 (holotype, P as photo F-35476; isotypes, P-2 as photos CTES)

Description

Species Description - Subshrubs ca. 1 m tall, the stems loosely stellate-pubescent, the hairs 0.5-1 mm long. Leaf blades lance-elliptic, mostly 4-13 x 2-4.5 cm, distichous, basally subtruncate to cuneate and more or less asymmetrically so, serrate, acute, penninerved or palmately 3-nerved, somewhat discolorous, the upper surface densely covered with appressed simple hairs ca. 1 mm long, the lower surface with simple and bifurcate (occasionally stellate) hairs 0.5-1 mm long (especially on veins); petioles 4-10 mm long; stipules 3-6 mm long, subulate. Flowers solitary or paired in the leaf axils or aggregated terminally or on lateral branches in subcapitate clusters, the pedicels 1-3 cm long, with pubescence similar to that of stem except more or less antrorsely oriented; involucellar bracts 7-8, narrowly linear with acute to narrowly rounded sinuses, 6-7 mm long, connate below, hirsute; calyx ca. 4 mm long, ciliate; corolla white, 8-12 mm long, minutely pubescent externally. Fruits 6 mm diam., glabrous, subglobose, the mericarp body 5-6 mm high, smooth, 3-spined, the spines 4-7 mm long, more or less erect, retrorsely barbed, the central spine dorsoventrally buttressed at base, the lateral spines 3 mm apart at base.

Discussion

This species was described by St.-Hilaire as having “floribus subglomeratis” and was therefore named “intermedia,” indicating its intermediacy between those species with solitary flowers and those with definite inflorescences. This is perhaps a matter of interpretation, but in my opinion the species accords better with the solitary-flowered species of Pavonia sect. Urenoideae than with P. sect. Typhalea. The slightly asymmetrically elliptic (distichous?) subsessile leaves, spaced at “normal” internode lengths agree with the condition found in P. pseudo-typhalea (for example) and not with that found in P. peruviana, in which the internodes are markedly shortened, and the leaf blades are symmetrically oblanceolate. The inflorescences in P. intermedia (when well developed) are axillary as well as terminal. In a somewhat different way, P. leucantha is also “intermediate,” in that it has the leaf disposition characteristic of P. sect. Urenoideae but has flowers often aggregated into more or less definite inflorescences that basically are axillary cymes but eventually (in a well-grown specimen) become terminal panicles. Because of this combination of characters, both P. intermedia and P. leucantha are keyed out in the keys to both P. sect. Typhalea and P. sect. Urenoideae.

Common Names

Carrapicho de tres pies , Vassoura do mata

Distribution

From Brazil (Bahia, Minas Gerais).

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