Waltheria indica L.

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Malvaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Waltheria indica L.

  • Description

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    Species Description - Shrub or subshrub, 0.5-1.5 m tall; stems rigid, densely stellatepubescent to tomentose throughout, more or less glabrate. Leaf blades (1—)3—10 x 1—4(—5) cm, ovate to oblong-ovate or ovatelanceolate, chartaceous, velvety stellate-pubescent to tomentose, occasionally the hairs stiff, the texture hirsute to subscabrous, grayish discolorous, paler beneath, the apex obtuse to subacute, the base rounded to truncate to subcordate, the margins crenateserrate to serrate or irregularly serrate; petioles 0.4-3(-5) cm long; stipules filiform. Flowers in axillary or terminal, generally glomerulate but occasionally more elongate and paniculiform inflorescences; peduncles to 5.3 cm long; bracts linear-lanceolate, 4-6 mm long. Calyx 4-4.75 mm long, stellate-sericeous without, glabrous within, the lobes triangular-subulate, with caudate-acuminate apex; petals yellow to yellow-orange, 4-6 mm long, oblongspatulate to oblong-obovate; staminal tube 2-3 mm long, the anthers subsessile, 0.75 mm long; ovary oblong-ellipsoid, ca. 1 mm long, sericeous at apex, the style ca. 1.5 mm long, the stigmas plumose-papillate. Fruit 2.5-3 mm long, obliquely obovoid, sericeous. Seeds 1.8-2.1 x 1-1.3 mm , obovoid, reddish brown, smooth.

    Distribution and Ecology - A common weed of open places and waste areas. Fish Bay (A2479), East End (A2782). Also on Anegada (Britton & Wilson, 1924; D'Arcy, 1971), St. Croix, St. Thomas, Tortola (D'Arcy, 1967), and Virgin Gorda (Britton & Wilson, 1924); a pantropical weed, native to the New World, where it occurs from Florida and the West Indies south through continental tropical America; introduced and naturalized in the Old World.

  • Discussion

    Waltheria americana L., Sp. PL 673. 1753. Waltheria indica var. americana (L.) R. Br. ex Hosok., Occas. Pap. Bernice Pauahi Bishop M u s . 13: 224. 1937

    Common name: marsh-mallow. Note: Waltheria indica and W. americana were described simultaneously by Linnaeus. R. Brown (in Tuckey, Narr. Exped. Zaire. 484. 1818) appears to have been the first to unite these taxa with equal priority, and accordingly his choice of W. indica must be followed.