Abutilon

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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 2023-06-03.

Family

Malvaceae

Species in genus

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 2023-06-03.

A large shrub of Corynabutilon vitifolium (syn. Abutilon vitifolium) 'Album' flowering with white roses (below) in the warm, sheltered conditions of the walled garden at Tyninghame, East Lothian, UK. 31 May 2014. Image Tom Christian.

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).

Abutilon megapotamicum flowering well on a south-facing wall at Coleton Fishacre, on the South Devon coast, UK (14th September 2021). Image Julian Sutton.