Abutilon pannosum (G.Forst.) Schltdl.
Sida pannosa G. Forst., A. glaucum (Cav.) Sweet, A. muticum (DC.) Sweet
Eng.: Ragged mallow. Ara. (Egypt): Loaq, amborao.
Shrub or shrubby perennial plant, tomentose, 1-2 m in height. Stems branched, with long yellowish-white hairs. Leaves up to 12 × 11 cm, from ovate-cordate to ± orbicular, shallowly dentate margin, acute apex, cordate base, tomentose on both sides. Petiole up to 10 cm. Stipules 0.8-1.2 cm, caducous. Flowers 3.5-4.5 cm in diameter, axillary, solitary, or in very dense terminal racemes and panicles. Pedicel 1-3.5 cm. Calyx 1-1.5 cm, lobe up to 8 mm, triangular, acute. Petals 1.6-2 cm, yellow with purple centre. Staminal tube 6 mm. Fruit 1-1.5 cm, subglobose, villous, with 22-34 mericarps, 7-9 × 4-5 mm, reniform glabrous and smooth, pilose along the dorsal margin. Seeds 2-3 in each mericarp, 2.5 × 2 mm, ovate-reniform, pilose, brown.
Flowering:
From autumn to spring.
Fruiting:
From autumn to summer.
Habitat:
Floodplains, often on saline soils; riverbanks, wet depressions between shrubs; crops; dunes; clayey, sandy soils and sandy-clayey surfaces in depressions between dunes. Between 30-900(1,900) m in altitude.
Distribution:
Saharo-Sindian, from the Cape Verde Islands to India. In North Africa it is present in the southern Sahara (from Mauritania to Sudan) reaching in the N to the central Sahara (Algeria) and Egypt.
Observations:
A variety of this species is A. pannosum var. figarianum (Webb) Verdc., a nitrophilous taxon that grows in ditches and edges of crops; it has slightly smaller flowers 2-2.5 cm diameter, calyx 0.5-0.8 cm long and orange-yellow petals.
Conservation status:
Common and widely distributed species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.