Melochia
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Malvaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Trees, shrubs, or herbs, with simple and/or stellate hairs. Leaves simple, unlobed, serrate; stipules small, persistent or early deciduous. Flowers bisexual, heterostylous, borne in axillary or terminal (rarely leaf-opposed), few-flowered umbel-like peduncled cymes or many-flowered dense headlike thyrses composed of 2 - or 3-flowered dichasia or monochasia, or thyrses sometimes secondarily arranged into interrupted spikelike panicles; bracts 3 or 4, distinct, forming an involucel; calyx 5-toothed or -lobed, more or less bell-shaped, persistent, nectariferous at the base; petals 5, pink to purple, usually yellow or white at base, or white, spatulate to oblong, flattened throughout (not hooded), clawed, adnate at the base or higher up to staminal tube, longer than the sepals; androphore or androgynophore absent or rarely present but very short; stamens 5, the filaments connate into a cylindrical staminal tube; staminodes 5, obsolete or toothlike, sometimes present in short-styled flowers; ovary 5-carpellate, with 2 ovules per locule, the stigmas 5, subulate or filiform to more or less clavate or shortly and racemosely branched, the styles 5, distinct, or connate to half their length. Capsule 5-locular, loculicidal and/or septicidal (rarely schizocarp), with 1 or 2 seeds per locule; seeds obovoid, nearly round in cross section or more or less angular on ventral surface, smooth to striate.
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Distribution
A pantropical, predominantly American genus of about 60 species, with several species extending into subtropical regions.
Saint John Virgin Islands of the United States South America|