Pavonia spinifex (L.) Cav.
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Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
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Family
Malvaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - A large, branched shrub, with broad, thin leaves, and showy, yellow, axillary flowers, frequent in Porto Rico, ascending to high elevations, growing on banks and hillsides, usually in thickets, also on the small islands Vieques and Culebra. It is distributed nearly throughout the West Indies, continental tropical and subtropical America, ranging north to Bermuda, and to South Carolina. Only this species of the genus Pavonia is found in Porto Rico, but several other, related plants growing here, have been classified in the genus by previous authors. Pavonia, a genus of 10 species, or more, was named by the Spanish botanist Cavanilles in 1787, in honor of Joseph Pavon, a Spanish botanist and explorer; the species here illustrated is typical. The plants are shrubs, or shrubby herbs, with alternate leaves, and axillary, stalked, mostly solitary flowers, subtended by an involucre of several bractlets. The calyx is 5-lobed, and there are 5 petals; the ovary consists of 5 carpels; there are 10 styles, topped by small, round stigmas. The mature, 1-seeded carpels (fruit) bear from 1 to 3 spines, or awns, on the back, and separate from the axis. Pavonia spinifex (spiny fruits) is a hairy shrub from 1 to 3 meters high. Its ovate, pointed, toothed leaves are from 5 to 10 centimeters long, their stalks slender. The flower-stalks are longer than the leaf-stalks; the involucre consists of 5, narrow bractlets from 7 to 10 millimeters long; the calyx is about as long as the bractlets, with lance-shaped lobes; the bright yellow petals, wedge-shaped at base, are 2 or 3 centimeters long. The fruiting carpels, 5 or 6 millimeters long, bear 1 medial and 2 lateral, barbed awns.
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Discussion
Cadillo espinoso Spur Bur Mallow Family Hibiscus spinosus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, edition 10, 1149. 1759. Pavonia spinifex Cavanilles, Dissertatio Botanica 3: 133. 1787.