genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
s in the mallow family,
Malvaceae
Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, cotton, cacao and durian. There are also some genera containing familiar ...
. It is distributed throughout the
tropics
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
and
subtropics
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north and ...
''Abutilon''. Flora of China. of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia. General common names include Indian mallow''Abutilon''. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). and velvetleaf; ornamental varieties may be known as room maple, parlor maple, or flowering maple.
The genus name is an 18th-century
New Latin
New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...
word that came from the Arabic ' (), the name given by
Avicenna
Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic G ...
to this or a similar genus.
The
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...
is ''
Abutilon theophrasti
''Abutilon theophrasti'' (velvetleaf, velvet plant, velvetweed, Chinese jute, China jute, crown weed, buttonweed, lantern mallow, butterprint, pie-marker, or Indian mallow) is an annual plant in the family Malvaceae, native to southern Asia.
It' ...
''. Several species formerly placed in ''Abutilon'', including the cultivated species and hybrids commonly known as "flowering maples", have recently (2012, 2014) been transferred to the new genus ''
Callianthe
''Callianthe'' is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Malveae. It is distributed throughout the Neotropics
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tro ...
''.
Description
Plants of this genus include herbs,
shrub
A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...
s, and
tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
s. They range in height from about 0.5 to 3 meters (1.5 to 10 feet). The herbage is generally hairy to woolly or bristly.''Abutilon''. The Jepson eFlora 2013. The leaf blades are usually entire, but the occasional species has lobed leaves. They are palmately veined and have wavy or serrated edges. Flowers are solitary, paired, or borne in small
inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...
s in the leaf axils or toward the branch tips. The calyx is bell-shaped with five lobes. The corolla is usually bell-shaped to wheel-shaped, with five
petal
Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...
s joined at the bases.
The flowers of wild species are most often yellow or orange, but can be red or pinkish, sometimes with a darker center. The
stamen
The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10
Morphology and terminology
A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...
s are fused into a tube lined at the mouth with anthers. Inside the tube is the branching
style
Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to:
* Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable
* Design, the process of creating something
* Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...
with head-like stigmas. The fruit is a rounded or hemispherical
schizocarp
A schizocarp is a dry fruit that, when mature, splits up into mericarps.
There are different definitions:
* Any dry fruit composed of multiple carpels that separate.
: Under this definition the mericarps can contain one or more seeds (the m ...
with up to 20 segments, each containing a few seeds.
Species
There are about 200 species in the genus.
Species include:
*''
Abutilon abutiloides
''Abutilon'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is distributed throughout the tropics and subtropicsJacq.) Garcke – bushy abutilon, shrubby Indian mallow
*''
Abutilon albescens
''Abutilon'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is distributed throughout the tropics and subtropicsMiq.
Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (24 October 1811 – 23 January 1871) was a Dutch botanist, whose main focus of study was on the flora of the Dutch East Indies.
Early life
Miquel was born in Neuenhaus and studied medicine at the University of Groni ...
*''
Abutilon asiaticum
''Abutilon'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is distributed throughout the tropics and subtropicsAbutilon auritum
''Abutilon'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is distributed throughout the tropics and subtropicsWall. ex Link)
Sweet
Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones ...
– Asian Indian mallow
*''
Abutilon avicennae
''Abutilon theophrasti'' (velvetleaf, velvet plant, velvetweed, Chinese jute, China jute, crown weed, buttonweed, lantern mallow, butterprint, pie-marker, or Indian mallow) is an annual plant in the family Malvaceae, native to southern Asia.
It' ...
'' - common yellow mallow
*''
Abutilon bedfordianum
''Abutilon'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is distributed throughout the tropics and subtropicsHook.
Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew h ...
)
A.St.-Hil.
Augustin François César Prouvençal de Saint-Hilaire (4 October 17793 September 1853) was French botany, botanist and traveller who was born and died in Orléans, France. A keen observer, he is credited with important discoveries in botany, nota ...
Gray
Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...
Urb.
Ignatz Urban (7 January 1848 – 7 January 1931) was a German botanist. He is known for his contributions to the flora of the Caribbean and Brazil, and for his work as curator of the Berlin Botanical Garden. Born the son of a brewer, Urban s ...
*''
Abutilon darwinii
''Callianthe darwinii'' is a shrub typically growing 2 m tall, native to Brazil (South America). The flowers are pink.
Uses
''Callianthe darwinii'' is a popular ornamental plant
Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are prim ...
''
Hook.f.
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of ...
– Darwin's mallow
*''
Abutilon eremitopetalum
''Abutilon eremitopetalum'', commonly known as the hidden-petaled abutilon or hiddenpetal Indian mallow, is a species of flowering shrub in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is endemic to dry forests and low shrublands on the windward side of ...
Guill.
Jean Baptiste Antoine Guillemin (20 January 1796 in Pouilly-sur-Saône – 15 January 1842 in Montpellier) was a French botanist.
He studied at the municipal college in Seurre, where he was considered one of the most distinguished pupils. U ...
&
Perr.
George Samuel Perrottet (23 February 1790 – 13 January 1870, Pondicherry), also known as Georges Guerrard-Samuel Perrottet, Guerrard Samuel Perrottet, Gustave Samuel Perrotet ic and Samuel Perrottet, was a botanist and horticulturalist from Pr ...
G.Don
George Don (29 April 1798 – 25 February 1856) was a Scottish botanist and plant collector.
Life and career
George Don was born at Doo Hillock, Forfar, Angus, Scotland on 29 April 1798 to Caroline Clementina Stuart and George Don (b.1756), p ...
Willd.
Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. Willdenow was al ...
Baill.
Henri Ernest Baillon was a French botanist and physician. He was born in Calais on 30 November 1827 and died in Paris on 19 July 1895.
Baillon spent his professional life as a professor of natural history, and he published numerous works on ...
Baker
A baker is a tradesperson who bakes and sometimes sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery.
History
Ancient history
Since grains ha ...
f. &
Exell
Exell is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Arthur Wallis Exell
Arthur Wallis Exell OBE (21 May 1901, in Birmingham – 15 January 1993, in Cheltenham) was initially an assistant and later Deputy Keeper of Botany at the Br ...
A.Gray
Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His '' Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually exc ...
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...
, northern
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
Endl.
Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher also known as Endlicher István László (24 June 1804, Pressburg, Bratislava (Pozsony) – 28 March 1849, Vienna) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian botanist, numismatist and Sinologist. He was a director of the Botan ...
F.Muell.
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vic ...
) F.Muell. ex
Benth.
George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...
– desert Chinese-lantern
*''
Abutilon listeri
'' Abutilon listeri '', commonly known as the lantern flower, is a tropical shrub in the Malvaceae or mallow family. It is endemic to Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the north-eastern Indian Ocean. Its specific epithet honours Briti ...
Hochst.
Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter (16 February 1787 – 20 February 1860) was a German botanist and Protestant minister.
Biography
Hochstetter was born in Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg. He was the father of geologist Ferdinand H ...
Abutilon megapotamicum
''Abutilon megapotamicum'' or ''Callianthe megapotamica'' (trailing abutilon) is a species of ''Abutilon'' native to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. It is a shrub growing to tall, with leaves long, ovate to shallowly three-lobed. The flowers ar ...
''
A.St.-Hil.
Augustin François César Prouvençal de Saint-Hilaire (4 October 17793 September 1853) was French botany, botanist and traveller who was born and died in Orléans, France. A keen observer, he is credited with important discoveries in botany, nota ...
Abutilon menziesii
''Abutilon menziesii'', known as Kooloaula in Hawaiian, is an endangered species of flowering shrub in the mallow family, Malvaceae, that is endemic to Hawaii.
Description
It is a sprawling shrub that can reach up to 10 feet in height. The ...
''
Seem.
Berthold Carl Seemann (25 February 1825, in Hanover, Germany – 10 October 1871, in Nicaragua, Central America), was a German botanist. He travelled widely and collected and described plants from the Pacific and South America.
In 1844 he trave ...
– ''kooloaula'' (
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
Willd.
Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. Willdenow was al ...
Griseb.
August Heinrich Rudolf Grisebach () was a German botany, botanist and phytogeography, phytogeographer. He was born in Hannover on 17 April 1814 and died in Göttingen on 9 May 1879.
Biography
Grisebach studied at the Lyceum in Hanover, the clo ...
– white-flowered abutilon
*''
Abutilon oxycarpum
''Abutilon oxycarpum'', known as flannel weed, straggly lantern-bush, and small-leaved abutilon, is a malvaceous plant native to eastern Australia. It is found on hillsides or floodplains on red sand and limestone.
Flannel weed was first descr ...
–'' small-leaved abutilon
*''
Abutilon palmeri
''Abutilon palmeri'', known as Palmer's abutilon, superstition mallow, and Palmer's Indian mallow is a species of flowering plant native the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.
The plant is found in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, ...
'' A.Gray – Palmer's Indian mallow
*'' Abutilon pannosum'' (G.Forst.) Schltdl.
*'' Abutilon parishii'' A.Watson – Parish's Indian mallow
*''
Abutilon parvulum
''Abutilon parvulum'' is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family known by the common names dwarf Indian mallow and dwarf abutilon and native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
This is a perennial herb growing from ...
Abutilon pictum
''Abutilon pictum'', syn. ''Abutilon striatum'' (disputed), is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae. It is native to southern Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. The plant has become naturalised in Central America, and is us ...
Walp.
Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers (26 December 1816 in Mühlhausen – 18 June 1853 in Berlin) was a German botanist. This botanist is denoted by the List of botanists by author abbreviation, author abbreviation Walp. when Author citation (botany), citing a ...
K.Schum.
Karl Moritz Schumann (17 June 1851 – 22 March 1904) was a German botanist.
Schumann was born in Görlitz. He was curator of the Botanisches Museum in Berlin-Dahlem from 1880 until 1894. He also served as the first chairman of the ''Deut ...
Juss.
Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (; 12 April 1748 – 17 September 1836) was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today. His classification was based on an ...
Abutilon sandwicense
''Abutilon sandwicense'', commonly known as the greenflower Indian mallow, is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family, Malvaceae, that is endemic to the island of Oahu, Hawaii, in the United States. It inhabits dry forests on the slop ...
Oahu
Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...
Klotzsch
Johann Friedrich Klotzsch (9 June 1805 – 5 November 1860) was a German pharmacist and botanist.
His principal work was in the field of mycology, with the study and description of many species of mushroom.
Klotzsch was born in Wittenberg. Origin ...
)
Regel
Eduard August von Regel (sometimes Edward von Regel or Edward de Regel or Édouard von Regel), Russian: Эдуард Август Фон Регель; (born 13 August 1815 in Gotha; died 15 April 1892 in St. Petersburg) was a German horticultural ...
*''
Abutilon theophrasti
''Abutilon theophrasti'' (velvetleaf, velvet plant, velvetweed, Chinese jute, China jute, crown weed, buttonweed, lantern mallow, butterprint, pie-marker, or Indian mallow) is an annual plant in the family Malvaceae, native to southern Asia.
It' ...
Griseb.
August Heinrich Rudolf Grisebach () was a German botany, botanist and phytogeography, phytogeographer. He was born in Hannover on 17 April 1814 and died in Göttingen on 9 May 1879.
Biography
Grisebach studied at the Lyceum in Hanover, the clo ...
Lem.
Charles Antoine Lemaire (1 November 1800, in Paris – 22 June 1871, in Paris), was a French botanist and botanical author, noted for his publications on Cactaceae.
Education
Born the son of Antoine Charles Lemaire and Marie Jeanne Davio, he ha ...
Bakeridesia integerrima
''Bakeridesia'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Malvaceae.
Its native range is Mexico to Venezuela, Eastern Brazil.
Species:
*'' Bakeridesia amoena''
*'' Bakeridesia bakeriana''
*'' Bakeridesia chittendenii''
*'' Bak ...
Briquetia spicata
''Briquetia'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Malvaceae
Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include ...
'' (Kunth) Fryxell (as ''A. spicatum'' Kunth)
*''
Corynabutilon ochsenii
''Corynabutilon'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae, native to southern Chile and Argentina. They are shrubs or small trees.
Species
Currently accepted species include:
*''Corynabutilon bicolor'' (Phil. ex K.Schum.) Kearney ...
Corynabutilon vitifolium
''Corynabutilon vitifolium'' ( syn. ''Abutilon vitifolium'')
is a species of plant in the mallow family. Its native range is central and south-central Chile. Its cultivars 'Tennant's White' and 'Veronica Tennant' have gained the Royal Horticultu ...
Some abutilons are cultivated as garden plants. Several hybrids and
cultivar
A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...
s have been developed.
Cultivars, hybrids, and species that have gained the
Royal Horticultural Society
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity.
The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...
's
Award of Garden Merit
The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions.
History
The Award of Garden Merit ...
include:
*''A. megapotamicum''
*''A.'' × ''milleri''
*'Canary Bird'
*'Cannington Carol'
*'Cannington Peter'
*'Kentish Belle'
*'Linda Vista Peach'
*'Marion'
*'Nabob'
*'Orange Glow'
*'Savitzii'
*'Souvenir de Bonn'
*'Veronica Tennant'
Abutilons can be propagated from seed or via cuttings. ''A. megapoticum'' is grown as a house plant, but needs considerable light, including several hours of sunlight per day, and moderate temperatures of . The best potting medium is a loose soil rich in organic material and sand and watered when dry to the touch. The amount of watering should be reduced from November to March and the plant pruned back one third at the end of this rest period. The plant is prone to attack by scale insects. The plant is best replaced every two to three years with new specimens.
Gallery
File:Abutilon theophrasti 002.jpg, ''
Abutilon theophrasti
''Abutilon theophrasti'' (velvetleaf, velvet plant, velvetweed, Chinese jute, China jute, crown weed, buttonweed, lantern mallow, butterprint, pie-marker, or Indian mallow) is an annual plant in the family Malvaceae, native to southern Asia.
It' ...
Abutilon menziesii
''Abutilon menziesii'', known as Kooloaula in Hawaiian, is an endangered species of flowering shrub in the mallow family, Malvaceae, that is endemic to Hawaii.
Description
It is a sprawling shrub that can reach up to 10 feet in height. The ...
''
File:Abutilon pictum 02.jpg, ''
Abutilon pictum
''Abutilon pictum'', syn. ''Abutilon striatum'' (disputed), is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae. It is native to southern Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. The plant has become naturalised in Central America, and is us ...
Abutilon megapotamicum
''Abutilon megapotamicum'' or ''Callianthe megapotamica'' (trailing abutilon) is a species of ''Abutilon'' native to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. It is a shrub growing to tall, with leaves long, ovate to shallowly three-lobed. The flowers ar ...