Waltheria americana L.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Malvaceae

• Scientific Name

  Waltheria americana L.

• Description

  
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  Species Description - A velvety, upright, yellow-flowered, shrubby plant, frequent at lower altitudes in Porto Rico, growing in fields, on banks and hillsides, as also on the small islands Mona, Cayo Muertos and Vieques. It is distributed throughout tropical America, north to Florida, and grows also in tropical parts of the Old World. In Porto Rico it is most plentiful in the dry districts; we have not observed it at elevations higher than about 250 meters. Waltheria was named by Linnaeus in honor of A. F. Walther, a professor in Leipzig, the species here illustrated typical; it includes about 35 species of herbs, shrubs and trees, often with stellate-pubescence. Their leaves are alternate, and toothed, their small, but perfect flowers mostly in axillary clusters. There are 5 sepals, united at the base into a short, 10-nerved tube; the 5, spatulate or obovate petals soon wither; the 5 stamens are united by the bases of their filaments; the ovary is 1-celled, the simple style not central, the stigma club-shaped, or brush-like. The fruit is a solitary 1-seeded, 2-valved follicle. Waltheria americana has stiff, velvety stems from 0.6 to 1.2 meters high. The short-stalked, ovate to oblong leaves are from 1 to 5 centimeters long, rather sharply toothed, pointed, or blunt, the base rounded or heart-shaped. The flowers form dense, axillary, stalked, or stalkless clusters; the narrow sepals are about 5 millimeters long, similar to the 3 bractlets which early fall away; the yellow petals are slightly longer than the sepals. The fruit is about 3 millimeters long, hairy at the top. Another species, Waltheria calcicola, is a rare plant, known in Porto Rico definitely only from limestone hills between Penuelas and Tallaboa, but inhabiting also Southern Jamaica and Haiti.

• Discussion

  Basora prieta Waltheria Chocolate Family Waltheria americana Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 673. 1753.