Wildflowers of Southern Arizona
Shrubby Indian Mallow.
Abutilon abutiloides.
Mallow (Malvaceae) family.
Duration: Perennial. Nativity: Native. Lifeform: Subshrub. General: Subshrub to 2 m tall with slender stems that are densely to sparsely stellate puberulent but becoming glabrate, the herbage densely stellate-tomentulose, with linear stipules 7-10 mm long. Leaves: Alternate and broadly ovate, acuminate, 2-10 cm long, dentate, pubescent, dark green above, densely tomentose and canescent below. Flowers: Pedicels and peduncles to 5 cm long, solitary or in racemes or panicles, calyx 9-12 mm long, lobes cordate, petals orange yellow 10-12 mm long, with 3-4 mm staminal column. Fruits: Subequal to calyx, 10-16 mm in diameter, with 8-10 mericarps, minutely stellate pubescent and with longer simple hairs on dorsal margin. Ecology: Found in open arid habitat below 4,000 ft (1219 m), flowers August-December. Distribution: Ranges across central and southern Arizona, east to Texas, south to central Mexico and into the West Indies. Notes: Distinguish this species by its being a gray-green subshrub to 1.5 m tall with mostly ascending-erect stems, stellate hairs all over; leaves 2-10 cm long, longer than wide; fruit sections 8-10, the fruits with stellate and simple hairs. Etymology: Abutilon is from the Arabic word for a mallow-like plant, while abutiloides is like a double-whammy of a name, meaning like the genus Abutilon.
Santa Catalina Mountains.
Sabino Canyon Recreation Area
Location: Beside Bear Canyon road.
11/7/18, 11/28/18
Notes: Flower blooms photographed at 1 PM.
See SEINet Pictures and Description
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