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Descriptive Flora 



(Sida physocalyx A. Gray.) 

 Sida hastata St. Hil. 



Plant with pale yellow or buff or orange-yellow flowers in 

 the axils of the leaves, and distinguished from other mallows by 

 the fruit having 10 carpels inclosed in a 5-angled bladder-life 

 pod. Leaf -blades oblong to ovate, 1 to 2y£ long, blunt tipped, 

 scalloped saw-toothed margins, and covered with forked hairs. 

 Petioles as long as the blades or shorter. Flowers solitary, on 

 slender axillary pedicels about 1" long. Petals 5, not longer than 

 the sepals. Stamens united at the base. April to July. Com- 

 mon weed of roadsides and fields. Sometimes confused with 

 Phy salts mollis (Ground Cherry) but differs in that Physalis 

 has only 5 stamens and a tomato-like fruit inclosed in the inflated 

 calyx while Sida has numerous stamens and a flattened fruit that 

 separates into ten parts like the cultivated hollyhock. Calyx 

 of 5 broad, ovate sepals that meet at their margins and form a 

 ballon-like pod around the carpels. 



Sida diffusa H. B. K. Small-leaved Sida. 



Low plants with simple, spreading, prostrate, slender 

 branches coming from a long woody tap root, and delicate pale 

 yellow flowers about % inch across, solitary on thread like 

 axillary pelicels longer than the leaf stalks. Leaves alternate, 

 X A to %" long, lanceolate to ovate, toothed. Petals 5, pale yellow, 

 delicate. Stamens many, united at base. Fruit 5 small carpels, 

 each bearing 2 teeth at the tip, and all of them inclosed by the 

 green, 5-angled, ribbed calyx cup. April to fall. In poor, dry 

 soil. Flowers open only in full sun. 



Sida longipes A. Gray. 



Perennial with few long slender erect stems, mostly narrowly 

 lanceolate leaves, fairly distant on the stem, and orange-yellow, 

 5-petalled flowers about 1" across, solitary on slender, almost 

 thread like axillary peduncles. Leaves simple, alternate. Blades 

 broadly linear-lanceolate to linear-oblong, 1 to 3" long, saw- 

 toothed. Petioles short, less than y£ long. Calyx 5-lobed. 



