Malvaceae
Abutilon

Abutilon pycnodon Hochr.

First published in Bull. Herb. Boissier 2: 1001 (1894)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is SW. Angola and Zimbabwe to S. Africa. It is a perennial or shrub and grows primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome.

Descriptions

Malvaceae, A. W. Exell. Flora Zambesiaca 1:2. 1961

Morphology General Habit
Perennial 0·75–2 m. tall, erect, much branched, shrubby, glaucous, usually densely leafy towards the tips of the branches, with an ash-grey (except on the leaves) appressed short velvety indumentum; stems herbaceous to wiry when young, usually with some longitudinally raised ridges decurrent from the leaf-bases or somewhat angular, later glabrescent and terete, ultimately woody and covered with a thin finely longitudinally fissured grey to brownish bark.
Morphology Leaves
Leaf-lamina 2–6 (10) × 4·5 (9) cm., thin but firm, glaucous or yellowish-glaucous above, slightly paler beneath, broadly ovate to ovate, apex shortly and usually bluntly acuminate, obtuse or acute (rarely rounded), margin usually rather coarsely crenate or crenate-serrate (occasionally crenulate to subentire), base cordate, venation on lower surface distinct and prominent; petiole 0·5–6 (12) cm. long, finely sulcate.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers
Flowers yellow to apricot, solitary, one to few on short (6–8 cm. long) leafy axillary shoots; pedicels up to 5 cm. long, terete or in upper portion slightly angular, articulated at or above the middle.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx
Calyx 7–9 mm. long, campanulate, incised to about the middle; lobes triangular-ovate, apiculate to acuminate, 1-nerved, finely ciliate.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla
Petals 14–20 mm. long.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium Stamens
Staminal tube hairy at the base.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Mericarps usually 18–24, 5–6 × 3–4·5 mm., blackish, shortly apiculate at the rounded apex, finely and somewhat floccosely stellate-tomentose dorsally and laterally in apical-dorsal region, 1-seeded. Fruit 14 mm. in diam., disk-shaped to depressed-hemispherical, nearly enclosed by the slightly accrescent calyx, umbilicate to truncate.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds
Seeds c. 2·5 × 1·5 mm., brown.
[FZ]

Sources

  • Flora Zambesiaca

    • Flora Zambesiaca
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2023. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2022 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2023. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2022 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0