Abutilon hirtum (Lam.) Sweet

  • Authority

    Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

  • Family

    Malvaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Abutilon hirtum (Lam.) Sweet

  • Description

    Species Description - An attractive-flowered, herbaceous, or somewhat shrubby, broad-leaved weed, occasional in cultivated and waste grounds at lower elevations in Porto Rico, on Vieques Island, and distributed nearly throughout the West Indies, extending north into Florida; it inhabits, also, tropical parts of the Old World. Judging from the occurrence of this plant, it may not be indigenous here. The flowers are wide open in the afternoon. Abutilon is a name recorded as given by the celebrated Arabian physician Avicenna, who died in the year 1037. It was taken up for the plants to which it is now applied by the English botanist Miller, in 1754, used also by some of his predecessors, but not by Linnaeus, who classified species known to him under Sida. About 100 species exist, herbs or shrubs, natives of warm and tropical regions, some tropical ones trees. They have alternate, often heart-shaped leaves, and axillary, solitary, or clustered flowers without an involucre. The calyx is 5-eleft, and there are 5 petals; the stamens form a central column; the 5 to many cavities of the ovary have several ovules; the branches of the style are as many as the ovary-cavities. The fruit consists of from 5 to many carpels, which separate at maturity. Abutilon hirtum (long-hairy) is about a meter high, or lower, branched, somewhat viscid, long-hairy and also finely velvety. The thin, long-stalked, nearly orbicular, pointed leaves are from 5 to 15 centimeters broad, with irregularly toothed margins, and a deeply heart-shaped base. The usually solitary flowers have stalks about as long as the leaf-stalks, or shorter; the calyx is finely hairy, with pointed lobes; the yellow petals, about 2 centimeters long, commonly have a red or purple base. The 20 to 30, flat, thin, black carpels are about as long as the calyx. There are 3 other Abutilons in the Porto Rico Flora.

  • Discussion

    Buenas tardes Hairy Abutilon Mallow Family Sida hirta Lamarck, Encyolopedie Methodique Botanique 1: 7. 1783. Abutilon hirtum Sweet, Hortus Britanicus 53. 1826.