Malvastrum coromandelianum (FALSE MALLOW)

 Malvastrum coromandelianum 

FALSE MALLOW !!
BOTANICAL NAME: Malvastrum coromandelianum 

FAMILY: Malvaceae (Mallow family)

SYNONYMS: Malva coromandeliana, Malvastrum tricuspidatum, Malvastrum tricuspidatum A.Gray,Malva americana
Malva coromandeliana, Malvastrum scabrum, Sida fauriei, Malva lindheimeriana, Malva havanensis, Malvastrum coromandelianum,
Malva luzonica, Malvastrum tricuspidatum, Malva hirsuta, Malvastrum corchorifolium, Sida oahuensis, Malvastrum carpinifolium, Sida jamaicensis, Malvastrum americanum, Malvastrum lindheimerianum

COMMON NAME: False Mallow, Broom weed, Clock plant, Prickly malvastrum, Kharenti, Chandiri, Sannabindige gida

ECOLOGY: It is a common weed for roadsides, orchards, dump site. It is a drought resistant plant.

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION:
False Mallow is a strong-stemmed, woody-rooted herb, growing to 1 m tall. The plant is usually smaller, velvel-hairy with characteristic 4-rayed hairs. Herbs to 50 cm tall; stem with appressed stellate hairs.

>>Leaves 2-8 x 1-3 cm, ovate or lanceolate, unlobed or shallowly 3-lobed, broadly rounded to cuneate at base, margins dentate to nearly serrate, acute to acuminate at apex, 3-5-nerved at base, petioles 2-3 cm long, stellate-hairy; stipules 3-5 mm long, lanceolate, acuminate, early deciduous.Leaf stalks are 1.5-4 cm long.

>>Light yellow flowers occur singly in leaf axils.

>>Flower stalk is 5 mm long. Flowers are yellow, about 1.3 cm broad, with 5 petals. Petals are obovate, very shallowly asymmetrically lobed at the tip. Flowers occasionally paired or terminal. Flowers axillary, solitary, often clustered; pedicels slender, 5-8 mm long. Involucellar bracts shorter than calyx, 4-6 x 7-10 mm, lanceolate, acuminate, strigose-hairy. Calyx 4-6 mm long in flower, and 8-12 mm long in fruit; lobes 5, 3-4 x 2-4 mm, deltoid, acuminate, fused to the middle, hirsute. Corolla 1-1.5 cm in diam., widely campanulate, pale yellow; petals 6-8 x 4-5 mm, obliquely obovate, exceeding the calyx lobes. Staminal column 3-4 mm long, glabrous. Schizocarps 5-6 mm diameter, enclosed within the calyx; mericarps 10 -12, 3-4 x 3-4 mm, setose with a single conspicuous apical and two dorsal cusps.

>>Fruit is about 6 mm broad, seeds kidney-shaped, ripe carpel with a few stiff hairs and 2 stubby points on the convex side.

>>Flowering and fruiting: March-September


SOURCES:
#http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/False%20Mallow.html

# http://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/246456

# http://publish.plantnet-project.org/project/plantinvasivekruger/collection/collection/synthese/details/MAVCO

# http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200013749

# http://plants.jstor.org/taxon/Malvastrum.coromandelianum

# http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?23314