Malvastrum

• 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

  Malvastrum

• Description

  Genus Description - Perennial shrubs or subshrubs (sometimes annual), erect, with patent or appressed stellate pubescence. Leaves petiolate, ovate or lanceolate, usually simple, serrate, crenate, or dentate; stipules lanceolate or falcate. Rowers solitary in the leaf axils or aggregated in apical spikes or racemes; involucel of 3 linear, spatulate, or ligulate bractlets; calyx 5-lobed; corolla yellowish or orangish, rarely with red center; androecium included, bearing anthers at apex; styles 7-18, the stigmas capitate. Fruit schizocarpic, oblate; mericarps 7- 18, indehiscent, horseshoe-shaped, hispid, with prominent ventral notch, sometimes 2-3-cuspidate, 1-seeded, setose or pubescent; seeds glabrate.

• Distribution

  A genus of 14 species, principally American but adventive in the Old World.