Duration: Perennial. Nativity: Native. Lifeform: Subshrub. General: Subshrub with slender stems 0.5-2 m tall, minutely stellate-tomentose, velvety pubescent herbage. Leaves: Ovate to lance-ovate, 0.5-3 cm wide, 1.5-6 cm long, irregularly serrulate, minutely grayish-tomentose on both surfaces, slightly paler beneath, acute to short-acuminate or sometimes obtuse at apex. Flowers: Axillary or subpaniculate near tips of branches, peduncles and pedicels together 1-2.5 cm long, slender; calyx lobes ovate, abruptly mucronate, 3-5 mm long, reflexed in fruit; petals yellow or pink with dark red center, petals reflexed, 4-6 mm long; staminal column 2-3 mm long, purplish, minutely pubescent, 5 styles. Fruits: Exceeding the calyx, about 6 mm in diameter, tomentulose, with 5 mericarps, acute or apiculate at apex, 3-seeded. Ecology: Found on open, arid well-drained slopes from 1,000-4,000 ft (305-1219 m); flowers April-October. Notes: One of the more common Abutilon in the Sonoran desert, often seen in its dormant phase with the whitish stems, remnant fruits, and a few scraggly greenish leaves near the base. In spring this species greens up and can grow quite large. Distinguished by being a gray-green perennial densely hairy with stellate hairs on leaves and stems, its heart-shaped leaves with toothed margins which hang down; yellow or pink petals with red veins and fruits with 5 sections, or mericarps (abutiloides has 8-10). Ethnobotany: Flowers, roots and bark used for stomachaches. Etymology: Abutilon is from the Arabic word for a mallow-like plant, while incanum means grayish or hoary.

Rincon Mountains
Saguaro National Park East
Location: Beside southern loop road
3/21/15.

Notes: Sabino Canyon at school bus turnaround 8/12/19, 9/15/19, 9/28/19.

See SEINet Pictures and Description

See FireFly Forest Pictures and Description