Urena lobata L.
Descripción
Much-branched subshrubs ca. 1 m tall, the stems minutely pubescent. Leaf blades mostly 3-9 cm long (smaller upward), broadly to narrowly ovate, angulate to shallowly lobulate (the sinuses more or less acute), basally truncate to cordate, crenate, more or less acute, slightly discolorous, minutely stellate-pubescent; petioles subequal to the blades below, progressively reduced upward to less than 1/4 the length of the blades above; stipules 2-4 mm long, subulate. Flowers one or a few in the leaf axils, subsessile to short-pedicellate (pedicels up to 7 mm long); involucel 5-6 mm long, subequal to calyx; calyx 5-9 m long, pubescent, ca. half-divided, the lobes ciliate, 1-ribbed; petals 15-20 mm long, lavender, abaxially pubescent; staminal column glabrous, the anthers subsessile. Fruits ca. 8 mm in diameter, oblate, stellate-pubescent and with numerous glochidiate spines; seeds 3-3.5 mm long. Chromosome numbers: 2n = 28, 56. A
Ecología y Hábitat
A pantropical weed (cf. Mitchell 1982) but is known to me in Mexico only from isolated localities in disturbed habitats in Veracruz and Chiapas, where it is probably introduced. It apparently flowers through most of the year. It is grown commercially for its stem fibers in some parts of the world (Samuel 1948).A
Tipo de vegetación
No especificadoA
Categoría IUCN
Preocupación menor (LC)B
Categoría NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010
No incluidaC