Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family 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 estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species.
Well-known members of economic importance include
okra
Okra or Okro (, ), ''Abelmoschus esculentus'', known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It has edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with su ...
,
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
,
cacao and
durian. There are also some genera containing familiar ornamentals, such as ''
Alcea
''Alcea'' is a genus of over 80 species of flowering plants in the mallow family Malvaceae, commonly known as the hollyhocks. They are native to Asia and Europe. The single species of hollyhock from the Americas, the streambank wild hollyhock, ...
'' (hollyhock), ''
Malva
''Malva'' is a genus of herbaceous annual, biennial, and perennial plants in the family Malvaceae. It is one of several closely related genera in the family to bear the common English name mallow. The genus is widespread throughout the temper ...
'' (mallow), and ''
Tilia'' (lime or linden tree). The largest genera in terms of number of species include ''
Hibiscus
''Hibiscus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. The genus is quite large, comprising several hundred species that are native to warm temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. Member species ...
'' (300 species), ''
Sterculia
''Sterculia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae: subfamily Sterculioideae (previously placed in the now obsolete Sterculiaceae). Members of the genus are colloquially known as tropical chestnuts. ''Sterculia'' ma ...
'' (250 species), ''
Dombeya'' (250 species), ''
Pavonia'' (200 species) and ''
Sida'' (200 species).
Taxonomy and nomenclature
The circumscription of the Malvaceae is controversial. The traditional Malvaceae ''
sensu stricto'' comprise a very homogeneous and cladistically
monophyletic group. Another major circumscription, Malvaceae ''
sensu lato
''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular c ...
'', has been more recently defined on the basis that genetics studies have shown the commonly recognised families
Bombacaceae,
Tiliaceae, and
Sterculiaceae Sterculiaceae was a family of flowering plant based on the genus ''Sterculia''. Genera formerly included in Sterculiaceae are now placed in the family Malvaceae, in the subfamilies: Byttnerioideae, Dombeyoideae, Helicteroideae and Sterculioideae.
A ...
, which have always been considered closely allied to Malvaceae ''s.s.'', are not monophyletic groups. Thus, the Malvaceae can be expanded to include all of these families so as to compose a monophyletic group. Adopting this circumscription, the Malvaceae incorporate a much larger number of genera.
Subfamilies
This article is based on the second circumscription, as presented by the
Angiosperm Phylogeny Website
The Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (or APweb) is a website dedicated to research on angiosperm phylogeny and taxonomy.
The site is hosted by the Missouri Botanical Garden website and maintained by researchers, Peter F. Stevens and Hilary M. Davis ...
.
The Malvaceae ''s.l.'' (hereafter simply "Malvaceae") comprise nine subfamilies. A tentative
cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...
of the family is shown below. The diamond denotes a poorly supported branching (<80%).
Until recently, relationships between these subfamilies were either poorly supported or almost completely obscure. Continuing disagreements focused primarily on the correct circumscription of these subfamilies, including the preservation of the family Bombacaceae. A study published in 2021 presented a fully resolved phylogenetic framework for Malvaceae ''s.l.'' using genomic data for all nine subfamilies.
Regarding the traditional Malvaceae ''s.s.'', the subfamily
Malvoideae approximately corresponds to that group.
Synapomorphies
The relationships between the "core Malvales" families used to be defined on the basis of shared "malvean affinities". These included the presence of malvoid teeth, stems with
mucilage
Mucilage is a thick, gluey substance produced by nearly all plants and some microorganisms. These microorganisms include protists which use it for their locomotion. The direction of their movement is always opposite to that of the secretion of m ...
canals, and stratified wedge-shaped phloem. These affinities were problematic because they were not always shared within the core families. Later studies revealed more unambiguous synapomorphies within Malvaceae ''s.l..'' Synapomorphies identified within Malvaceae ''s.l.'' include the presence of tile cells, trichomatous nectaries, and an
inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...
structure called a bicolor unit. Tile cells consist of vertically positioned cells interspersed between and dimensionally similar to procumbent ray cells. Evidence of Malvean wood fossils has confirmed their evolutionary link in Malvaceae ''s.l.'', as well as explained their diverse structures. Flowers of Malvaceae ''s.l''. exhibit nectaries consisting of densely arranged multicellular hairs resembling trichomes. In most of Malvaceae ''s.l.'', these trichomatous nectaries are located on the inner surface of the sepals, but flowers of the subfamily Tiliodeae also have present nectaries on the petals.
Malvean flowers also share a unifying structure known as a bicolor unit, named for its initial discovery in the flowers of ''Theobroma bicolor''. The bicolor unit consists of an ordered inflorescence with determinate cymose structures. The inflorescence can branch off the main axis, creating separate orders of the flowers, with the main axis developing first.
Bracts on the
peduncle subtend axillary buds that become these lateral stalks. One bract within this whorl is a sterile bract. The bicolor unit is a variable structure in complexity, but the presence of fertile and sterile bracts is a salient characteristic.
Names
The English common name 'mallow' (also applied to other members of Malvaceae) comes from Latin ''
malva
''Malva'' is a genus of herbaceous annual, biennial, and perennial plants in the family Malvaceae. It is one of several closely related genera in the family to bear the common English name mallow. The genus is widespread throughout the temper ...
'' (also the source for the English word "
mauve
Mauve (, ; , ) is a pale purple color named after the mallow flower (French: ''mauve''). The first use of the word ''mauve'' as a color was in 1796–98 according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', but its use seems to have been rare befo ...
"). ''Malva'' itself was ultimately derived from the word for the plant in ancient Mediterranean languages.
Cognates of the word include
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
() or (),
Modern Greek
Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...
(), modern ar, ملوخية () and modern he, מלוחיה ().
Description
Most species are
herbaceous plants or
shrubs, but some are
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 or
lianas.
Leaves and stems
Leaves are generally
alternate, often palmately lobed or compound and palmately veined. The margin may be entire, but when
dentate
Dentate may refer to:
* A species having dentition
* An energy-dissipating baffle block in a spillway
* An individual not being edentulous
* Dentate gyrus of the hippocampus
* Dentate nucleus of the cerebellum
* Denticity in chemistry
* Dentat ...
, a vein ends at the tip of each tooth (malvoid teeth). Stipules are present. The
stems contain mucous canals and often also mucous cavities. Hairs are common, and are most typically
stellate. Stems of Bombacoideae are often covered in thick prickles.
Flowers
The flowers are commonly borne in definite or indefinite axillary
inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...
s, which are often reduced to a single flower, but may also be
cauliflorous
Cauliflory is a botanical term referring to plants that flower and fruit from their main stems or woody trunks, rather than from new growth and shoots. This can allow trees to be pollinated or have their seeds dispersed by animals that climb ...
, oppositifolious, or terminal. They often bear supernumerary
bracts in the structure of a bicolor unit.
They can be unisexual or bisexual, and are generally
actinomorphic
Floral symmetry describes whether, and how, a flower, in particular its perianth, can be divided into two or more identical or mirror-image parts.
Uncommonly, flowers may have no axis of symmetry at all, typically because their parts are spirall ...
, often associated with conspicuous bracts, forming an
epicalyx. They generally have five valvate
sepal
A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coine ...
s, most frequently basally
connate, with five imbricate
petals. The
stamens are five to numerous, and connate at least at their bases, but often forming a tube around the
pistils. The pistils are composed of two to many connate
carpel
Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) '' pistils' ...
s. The
ovary is superior, with axial placentation, with capitate or lobed stigma.
The flowers have
nectaries
Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualist ...
made of many tightly packed glandular
hairs, usually positioned on the sepals.
Fruits
The fruits are most often
loculicidal capsules,
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 ...
s or
nuts.
Pollination
Self-pollination is often avoided by means of
protandry. Most species are
entomophilous
Entomophily or insect pollination is a form of pollination whereby pollen of plants, especially but not only of flowering plants, is distributed by insects. Flowers pollinated by insects typically advertise themselves with bright colours, some ...
(pollinated by insects). Bees from the tribe
Emphorini of the
Apidae
Apidae is the largest family within the superfamily Apoidea, containing at least 5700 species of bees. The family includes some of the most commonly seen bees, including bumblebees and honey bees, but also includes stingless bees (also used for ...
(including ''
Ptilothrix'', ''
Diadasia'', and ''
Melitoma'') are known to specialize on the plants.
Importance
A number of species are pests in
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...
, including ''
Abutilon theophrasti'' and ''
Modiola caroliniana
''Modiola'' is a monotypic genus of plants in the mallow family containing the single species ''Modiola caroliniana'', which is known by several common names including bristly-fruited mallow, Carolina bristlemallow, babosilla, and redflower mall ...
'', and others that are garden escapees.
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
(four species of ''
Gossypium
''Gossypium'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Gossypieae of the mallow family, Malvaceae, from which cotton is harvested. It is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Old and New Worlds. There are about 50 ''Gossypium ...
''),
kenaf
Kenaf tymology: Persian ''Hibiscus cannabinus'', is a plant in the family Malvaceae also called Deccan hemp and Java jute. ''Hibiscus cannabinus'' is in the genus '' Hibiscus'' and is native to Africa, though its exact origin is unknown. The name ...
(''Hibiscus cannabinus''),
cacao (''Theobroma cacao''),
kola nut (''Cola spp.''), and
okra
Okra or Okro (, ), ''Abelmoschus esculentus'', known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It has edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with su ...
(''Abelmoschus esculentus'') are important agricultural crops. The fruit and leaves of
baobabs are edible, as is the fruit of the
durian. A number of species, including ''
Hibiscus syriacus
''Hibiscus syriacus'' is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is native to Korea, and south-central and southeast China, but widely introduced elsewhere, including much of Asia. It was given the epithet ''syriacus'' b ...
'', ''
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'' and ''
Alcea rosea
''Alcea rosea'', the common hollyhock, is an ornamental dicot flowering plant in the family Malvaceae. It was imported into Europe from southwestern China during, or possibly before, the 15th century. William Turner, a herbalist of the time, ga ...
'' are garden plants.
See also
* ''
Florissantia'', an extinct
Cenozoic genus in the subfamily Sterculioidea
References
*
*
*
* Bayer, C. and K. Kubitzki 2003. Malvaceae, pp. 225–311. In K. Kubitzki (ed.), ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'', vol. 5, Malvales, Capparales and non-betalain Caryophyllales.
*
*
* Maas, P. J. M. and L. Y. Th. Westra. 2005. ''Neotropical Plant Families'' (3rd edition).
*
* (abstract onlin
here.
*
External links
Tree of Life.org: Core Malvales— ''image gallery''.
GREIF Flora: Malvaceae of Mongolia
{{Authority control
Malvales families