Meximalva Fryxell
Contenido
Descripción
Erect shrubs to 1 m tall, minutely stellate-tomentose, with distichous branching. Leaves distichous, short-petiolate, the blades linear-lanceolate, oblong, or lanceolate-ovate, serrate, obtuse or acute, lacking foliar nectaries; stipules linear, equaling or exceeding the petioles. Flowers solitary in the leaf axils; pedicels elongate and slender, sometimes exceeding the leaves; involucel absent; calyx small, basally rounded, ecostate, 5-lobed; petals lavender or purple, small, glabrous throughout (including claw); androecium included, antheriferous at apex, the column pallid or purple; styles 7-8, divergent, the stigmas capitate. Fruits schizocarpic; mericarps 7-8, pubescent dorsally, laterally reticulate-fenestrate, partially dehiscent apically between two empty, double-walled “horns”; seeds solitary, glabrous or with a few stellate hairs. Base chromosome number: x = 8.A
Discusión taxonómica
Meximalva comprises two Mexican species, one of which also occurs to the north in southern Texas.A