Malvastrum A. Gray
Contenido
Descripción
Perennial shrubs or subshrubs (sometimes annual), erect, with patent or appressed stellate pubescence. Leaves petiolate, the blades ovate or lanceolate, usually simple, crenate or dentate, lacking foliar nectaries; stipules lanceolate or falcate. Flowers solitary in the leaf axils or aggregated in apical spikes or racemes; involucel of 3 filiform or spatulate bractlets; calyx 5-lobed; corolla yellow or orangish, rarely with a red center; androecium included, antheriferous at apex; styles 8~18, the stigmas capitate. Fruits schizocarpic, oblate, setose or pubescent; mericarps (5-) 8-18, indehiscent, horseshoe-shaped with a prominent ventral notch, reddish brown, sometimes 2-3-cuspidate, 1-seeded; seeds glabrous. Base chromosome number: x = 6.A
Discusión taxonómica
Malvastrum, a genus of fourteen species, is principally American in distribution.A