Wild Abutilon

mauritianum: of Mauritius

Soft-wooded, much-branched shrub up to c. 1.5 m tall. Leaves more or less broadly ovate-cordate, up to 18 × 16 cm, with a long acuminate tip, unlobed, discolorous, dark green above, paler grey-green below with prominent veins; margin slightly but distinctly serrate-crenate; petiole up to 18 cm long. Flowers axillary, often on short axillary shoots, yellow, sometimes reddish at the base or with reddish veins, c. 3 cm in diameter. Calyx more or less cup-shaped, 10-18 mm long and 8-10 mm in diameter; lobes 6-12 mm long, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate-linear, gradually acuminate. Fruit 20-25 mm in diameter, stellate-pubescent with 23-40 mericarps, 2-3-seeded, black when dry, radiately spreading with long, spine-like awns c. 1/3 of the length of the mericarp.

Widespread in Tropical, Africa, Swaziland and Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Also in Mauritius.