Abutilon pannosum

Description

Abutilon pannosum is a subshrub species of the family Malvaceae. It is a perennial shrub that grows up to 10 feet tall. Velvety, cordate base shaped leaves, with wooly appearance at the lower surfaces while the upper surface are somewhat scabrous. 1.5 cm to 8cm long petiole. Erect stems and yellow-orange corolla and dark red or purple base.Seeds are brownish-black and oval shaped. Abutilon pannosum is native to many countries in tropical and Horn of Africa, Yemen, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan. Abutilon pannosum's seed are used as a herbal laxative while its flower extracts are used for improving sexual performance. Abutilon pannosum is a species of Magnoliopsida first described by Forst. f., and was given the simplistic Asian name by Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal. Abutilon pannosum belongs to the genus Abutilon, and the family Malvaceae. Abutilon is a large genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia. General common names include Indian mallow and velvetleaf; ornamental varieties may be known as room maple, parlor maple, or flowering maple. The genus name is an 18th-century New Latin word that came from the Arabic ’abū-ṭīlūn the name given by Avicenna to this or a similar genus. The type species is Abutilon theophrasti. Several species formerly placed in Abutilon, including the cultivated species and hybrids commonly known as "flowering maples", have recently (2012, 2014) been transferred to the new genus Callianthe. Plants of this genus include herbs, shrubs, and trees. They range in height from about 0.5 to 3 meters (1.5 to 10 feet). The herbage is generally hairy to woolly or bristly. The leaf blades are usually entire, but the occasional species has lobed leaves. They are palmately veined and have wavy or serrated edges. Flowers are solitary, paired, or borne in small inflorescences in the leaf axils or toward the branch tips. The calyx is bell-shaped with five lobes. The corolla is usually bell-shaped to wheel-shaped, with five petals joined at the bases. The flowers of wild species are most often yellow or orange, but can be red or pinkish, sometimes with a darker center. The stamens are fused into a tube lined at the mouth with anthers. Inside the tube is the branching style with head-like stigmas. The fruit is a rounded or hemispherical schizocarp with up to 20 segments, each containing a few seeds.