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MALVACEAE

MALLOW FAMILY

Steven R. Hill, except as specified

Annual, perennial herb, shrubs, trees, generally stellate-hairy; juice sticky; inner bark tough, fibrous
Leaves alternate, simple, petioled; blade generally palmately veined or lobed, stipules present
Inflorescence often leafy; whorl or involucre of bractlets often subtending calyx
Flower generally bisexual, radial; calyx lobes 5, margins abutting in bud; petals 5, free (fused at base to filament tube, so falling together); stamens many, filaments fused into a tube surrounding style, tube fused in turn to petal bases; pistil 1, ovary superior, chambers generally 5 or more, style branches, stigmas generally 1 or 2 X as many as chambers
Fruit of 5–many disk- or wedge-shaped segments, loculicidal capsule, or berry
Genera in family: 100 genera, 2000 species: worldwide, especially warm regions; some cultivated (e.g., Abelmoschus , okra; Alcea ; Gossypium , cotton; Hibiscus , Malvaviscus )
Recent taxonomic note: Recently treated to include Sterculiaceae [Angiosperm phylogeny Group 1998 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 85:531–553; Alverson et al. 1999 Amer J Bot 86:1474–1486; Bayer et al. 1999 Bot J Linn Soc 129:267–303]
Mature fruit important for identification.

HERISSANTIA

BLADDER MALLOW

Annual, perennial herb, generally simple and stellate hairs mixed
Stem generally trailing
Leaf sometimes ± sessile on flower branches; blade cordate
Inflorescence: flowers solitary in axils; pedicels slender, jointed; bractlets subtending calyx 0
Flower: stigmas head-like
Fruit: segments 8–15, bladdery-inflated, rounded at top, outer margin dehiscent, side walls thin, flexible, smooth
Seeds generally 2–3 per segment
Species in genus: 5 species: warm and tropical Am
Etymology: (L.A.P. Herissant, 18th century French physician, naturalist, poet)
Reference: [Fryxell 1979 J Arnold Arbor 60:316–319]

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