''Melhania velutina'' is a plant in the family Malvaceae, native to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Description

''Melhania velutina'' grows as a herb or subshrub up to tall, rarely to . The

ovate Ovate may refer to: *Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe *Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd *Vates In modern English, the nouns vates () and ovat ...

leaves are tomentose above and measure up to long. Inflorescences have a solitary flower or two to four-flowered

cymes 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 on ...

, on a stalk up to long. The flowers have yellow petals. The fruits are

ovoid An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one or ...

and measure up to long.

Distribution and habitat

''Melhania velutina'' is native to an area from Angola northeast to Sudan and east to Somalia. It is also native to Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Its habitat is in woodland, grassland, riverside forests and agricultural land, typically at elevations of .

References

velutina Flora of Northeast Tropical Africa Flora of East Tropical Africa Flora of West-Central Tropical Africa Flora of Angola Flora of Malawi Flora of Saudi Arabia Flora of Yemen Plants described in 1775 Taxa named by Peter Forsskål Afromontane flora {{Malvaceae-stub