Anoda acerifolia Cav.

• Title

  Anoda acerifolia Cav.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton

• Scientific Name

  Anoda acerifolia Cav.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Anoda acerifolia Violetta Anoda Family Malvaceae Mallow Family Sida acerifolia Zuccarini, in Roemer, Collecteana 148. 1809. Anoda acerifolia De Candolle, Prodromus 1: 450. 1825. Attractive by its blue or lilac, rather large flowers, frequent in Porto Rico, in moist districts at lower elevations, often in cultivated grounds as a pretty and not very troublesome weed, this herbaceous plant, annual in duration, has wide distribution in continental tropical America, and in the West Indies inhabits Santo Domingo, Cuba, Jamaica and Tobago. It was first described by the German botanist Zuccarini, who grew specimens from seed. In the West Indies it often appears as if introduced, but we are unable to determine this confidently, and have regarded the plant as native in Porto Rico; relationship with Anoda hastata, of continental tropical and subtropical America is close, but studies by the Swiss botanist Hochreutiner indicate that specific differences exist. Anoda (Greek, without nodes) is a genus established by the Spanish botanist Cavanilles in 1785 and now known to comprise some 15 species inhabiting both the New World and the Old. Their leaves are alternate, broad and stalked, their flowers solitary and long-stalked in the axils, mostly blue, lilac, purple or violet. The calyx is 5-lobed, and there are 5, separate petals; the numerous stamens are united by their filaments into a tube; the ovary is many-celled and there are 5 styles. The fruit consists of radiating, small, 1-seeded carpels. Anoda acerifolia (Maple-leaved) varies in habit from upright to prostrate, the simple or branched stems smooth,or sparingly hairy, from 0.3 to 0.9 meters long. The leaves are various in form, from halberd-shaped, as in the plant here illustrated, to broader and toothed, or lobed, and from 2 to 8 centimeters long. The slender flower-stalks are about as long as the leaves, or longer; the lobes of the calyx are broad and pointed; the obovate petals are from 12 to 16 millimeters long. In fruit, the 9 to 12, tipped carpels, bristly-velvety, and about 4 millimeters long, radiate like spokes of a small wheel, above the enlarged, spreading calyx. Our illustration was first published in Addisonia, plate 503, September, 1930.