Threelobe False Mallow

Chinese material can be referred to Malvastrum coromandelianum subsp. coromandelianum; two further SubSpe are recorded from South America.

The whole plant is used medicinally.

Subshrubs, sometimes annual, to 1(-1.5) m tall, most parts pilose and appressed stellate pubescent. Stipules lanceolate, 5-7 mm; petiole 0.7-3 cm, densely pilose; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate or ovate, 3-7 × 0.8-4 cm, abaxially pilose and stellate pilose, adaxially sparsely hairy, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin coarsely dentate, apex acute or obtuse. Flowers axillary, solitary. Pedicel 3-5(-10) mm, pilose. Epicalyx lobes filiform, ca. 5 × 1 mm, pilose. Calyx shallowly cup-shaped, 5-7 mm in flower, accrescent to 8-11 mm in fruit, lobes ovate, ca. 8 mm, abaxially sparsely pubescent with stellate hairs, adaxially nearly glabrous, apex acuminate. Corolla apricot-yellow, ca. 1.5 cm in diam.; petals obovate, 6-9 × ca. 4 mm. Filament tube ca. 6 mm, glabrous. Schizocarp ca. 6 mm in diam.; mericarps 8-12(-14), reniform, sparsely pubescent with simple hairs mixed with stellate hairs, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., 3-cusped (2 abaxial, 1 apical), endoglossum lacking. Seeds ca. 1 mm in diam.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan [India, Japan (Ryuku Islands), Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam; probably originating in America, now pantropical].

Weed of fallow fields, dry and open wastelands, or roadsides; near sea level to 500 m.

Malva coromandeliana Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 687. 1753; M. tricuspidata R. Brown; Malvastrum ruderale Hance ex Walpers; M. tricuspidatum (R. Brown) A. Gray.