768 MALVACEAE 
7. MALVASTRUM A. Gray. 
Annual or perennial herbs, or shrubby plants, with pubescent foliage. Leaves alter- 
nate: blades various, narrow or broad, entire, lobed or parted. Involucels of 1-3 small 
bractlets, or wanting. F lowers perfect, axillary or in terminal spike-like racemes. Sepals 
5, partially united. Petals 5, yellow, golden or scarlet, distinct. Carpels 5 or more, 1- 
celled. Styles filiform or club-shaped. Stigmas truncate or capitate. Ovule solitary, 
ascending. Mature carpels sometimes with erect converging beaks, indehiscent or 2-valved. 
Seed filling the cavity. FALSE MALLOW. 
Annual. 1. M. angustum. 
Perennial. 
Petals yellow. 
Stems clothed with appressed or spreading hairs. 
Flowers solitary in the axils or in terminal interrupted spikes or spike-like 
racemes: stems strigose. 
Carpels 15, sometimes with an obscure tip behind the apex. 2. M. Rugelii. 
Carpels 8-12, beaked behind the apex. 8. M. Americanum, . 
Flowers in congested terminal and axillary spikes: stems hirsute. 4. M. spicatum. 
Stems clothed with very short scale-like stellate hairs. 5. M. Wrightii. 
Petals red or crimson. 
Upper leaves with entire blades. 6. M. leptophyllum. 
Upper leaves with 3-5-lobed blades. 7. M. coccineum. 
1. Malvastrum angústum A. Gray. Annual, strigose. Stems erect, 1-3 dm. tall, 
simple or with ascending branches : leaf-blades oblong-lanceolate to linear-oblong, 2-4 cm. 
jong, remotely serrate with appressed or flaring teeth: petioles much shorter than the 
blades : flowers axillary: pedicels longer than the petioles or shorter: bractlets of the in- 
volucels linear-setaceous : calyx accrescent ; tube angled ; lobes broadly triangular, acu- 
minate: petals yellow, about equalling the tips of the calyx-lobes: carpels 5-6, finely 
pubescent, reniform, finally 2-valved. 
In dry soil, Iowa to Tennessee and Kansas. Summer. 
2. Malvastum Rugélii S. Wats. Perennial, strigose or hirsute-strigillose. Stems 
erect or decumbent, 3-9 dm. long, branching : leaf-blades ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 2-6 
cm. long, usually acute, coarsely serrate, often broadly cuneate at the base: petioles as 
long as the blades or usually shorter: flowers on short axillary pedicels and crowded at the 
ends of the branches : calyx accrescent ; lobes triangular-ovate, acuminate, 3-5 mm. long, 
surpassing the tube in length : petals orange- yellow, surpassing the calyx-lobes: carpels 
about 15, hispidulous, flattened, often with an obscure tip behind the inflexed apex. 
In sand, peninsular Florida. Also in the West Indies. 
. 3. Malvastrum Americànum (L.) Torr. Perennial, or sometimes annual northward, 
strigose with simple or 2-3-rayed hairs. Stems 3-9 dm. tall, branched : leaf-blades orbicular- 
ovate to oblong-ovate, 2-8 cm. long, acute, sharply serrate, the teeth often flaring : petioles 
3-3 as long as the blades: flowers axillary: pedicels usually solitary, shorter than the 
petioles: involucels of three bractlets: calyx accrescent ; lobes triangular, acute, longer 
than the-tube : petals light yellow, obliquely truncate, surpassing the sepals, expandin, 
about noon : carpels 8-12, conduplicate, hirsute on the top, with a beak back of the inflex 
apex and 2 beaks on the back. 
In sandy soil, Texas and Florida. Also in tropical America and on other tropical shores. Spring 
and summer. 
4. Malvastrum spicàtum (L.) A. Gray. Perennial, rough-pubescent. Stems gn 
or ascending, 3-9 dm. tall, more or less branched : leaf-blades ovate or deltoid-ovate, 
cm. long, obtuse or acutish, crenate-serrate, sometimes slightly lobed, nearly truncate e 
subcordate at the base: petioles 1-1 as long as the blades: flowers in dense terminal sp: re 
calyx densely pubescent ; lobes triangular-lanceolate, acuminate, 3.5-4 mm. long: pe zi 
yellow-red, 8-11 mm. long: carpels conduplicate, 3 mm. long, hirsute on top, not t 
the tip inflexed. 
In sandy soil, Texas and Florida. Also in tropical America. 
5. Malvastrum Wrightii A. Gray. Perennial, scaly pubescent. Stems branching, 
the branches ascending, 3-6 dm. tall, rigid: leaf-blades suborbicular to ovate or dert 
long, obtuse, coarsely crenate-serrate, rounded or subcordate at the base : petioles 3 as "vd 
as the blades or equalling them in length: involucels of foliaceous ovate or Janceomee 
sometimes ar ua oce adnate to the calyx-tube: flowers nearly sessile in xpi ihe 
calyx densely scaly; lobes triangular-ovate, 5-7 mm. long, acuminate, longer t ogib- 
tube : petals pellem, 11-14 mm. long: carpels 15-20, hirsute on top, and there also 4-81 
bous, ventrally 2-pointed. 
In dry soil, usually in mesquite thickets, Texas. Summer, 
