Abutilon

TSO logo

Sponsor this page

For information about how you could sponsor this page, see How You Can Help

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Abutilon' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/abutilon/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Family

  • Malvaceae

Glossary

calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
family
A group of genera more closely related to each other than to genera in other families. Names of families are identified by the suffix ‘-aceae’ (e.g. Myrtaceae) with a few traditional exceptions (e.g. Leguminosae).
gynoecium
The female sex organs in a flower (e.g. carpels).
ovary
Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.
section
(sect.) Subdivision of a genus.
style
Generally an elongated structure arising from the ovary bearing the stigma at its tip.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Abutilon' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/abutilon/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

A genus of about one hundred woody or herbaceous species, mostly tropical and sub-tropical in distribution. The cultivated species are soft-wooded plants, nearly all of them natives of Central and S. America, with showy flowers borne singly in the leaf-axils, or in small panicles. As is common in the Mallow family the numerous stamens are united into a tube which surrounds the gynoecium; the ovary has several chambers and the style is divided into as many arms as there are chambers; the calyx may be tubular and only shortly five-lobed, or divided to the base into five segments; petals five. The fruit is dry and splits into segments (schizocarps), each of which opens to release a few seeds.

A. vitifolium, A. ochsenii and two other species not described here are characterised by a type of style not seen elsewhere in the genus and are for this reason separated as a distinct section – Corynabutilon – or even as a distinct genus (Kearney in Leafl. West. Bot., 5, p. 189, 1949).