Malvella Jaub. & Spach
Contenido
Descripción
Prostrate perennial herbs with stellate and lepidote pubescence. Leaves petiolate, distichous, the blades asymmetrical, more or less reniform or flabellate to triangular, crenate or entire, lacking foliar nectaries; stipules 3-5 mm long, subulate. Flowers solitary in the leaf axils, borne on long pedicels; involucel present or absent; calyx lobes ovate or cordate; petals pale yellow fading pale rose; androecium included, glabrous, pallid, antheriferous at apex; styles 7-10, with capitate stigmas. Fruits schizocarpic; mericarps 7-10, dorsally rounded, essentially unornamented, essentially indehiscent, 1-seeded; seeds glabrous. Base chromosome number: uncertain, probably x = 16.A
Discusión taxonómica
Malvella includes four species, one from Europe and Asia Minor, the other three from the Americas—Mexico and the southwestern United States. One of the latter also occurs disjunctly in South America from Uruguay to Peru and elsewhere (e.g., Australia) as an adventive.A