Malachra alceifolia Jacq.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Malvaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Malachra alceifolia Jacq.

  • Description

    Species Description - Herb or subshrub 0.5-2 m tall; stems usually hispid, sometimes very sparsely so. Leaf blades orbicular to ovate, 3-5-angled or slightly lobulate, 6-9 X 4-9 cm, sparsely hispid to glabrate, the apex acute to obtuse, the base truncate, the margins serrate; petioles 4-6 cm long. Inflorescence a series of compact, axillary, few-flowered glomerules, short-pedunculate to sessile; specialized floral bracts several, subsessile, the base cordate, the apex acuminate, often with white reticulate tissue at base, often hispid; involucel absent. Calyx deeply 5-lobed, 6-8 mm long, hispid; petals yellow, 1-1.5 cm long; staminal column subequal to corolla. Fruit minutely puberulent, the mericarps ca. 3 mm long, brownish with reticulate veins. Seeds solitary per locule, glabrous.

  • Discussion

    Malachra rotundifolia Schrank, P L Rar. Hort. Monac. t. 56. 1820.

  • Distribution

    Often in disturbed ground. Lameshur (W515), Enighed (A3098). Also on St. Croix and St. Thomas; West Indies and southem Mexico, Central America, and northern South America.

    Central America| South America| México Mexico North America| West Indies| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America|