Monkeybush

In Pakistan it is common in Sindh and Punjab, rare in N.W.F.P.

Some authors, such as Borssum Waalkes (Blumea 14: 175. 1966), include the following species within Abutilon indicum.

Undershrub to shrub, ½ to c. 3 m tall, stellate pubescent, intermingled with small, simple, spreading hairs atleast on the young parts. Branches usually green sometimes purplish. Leaves 2-18.5 cm long, 1.5-16 cm broad, cordate at base, acute to long acuminate at apex, serrate to crenate, 7-9-nerved, sometimes 3-angular, stellate pubescent, velutinous and cinereous on both sides, sometimes green above, petiole 2 to 18 cm long, stellate pubescent mixed with sparse, weak, simple, spreading hairs; stipule linear, 2-5 mm long. Flowers axillary, solitary; pedicel 1.5-8 cm long, jointed near the apex. Calyx 7-11 mm long, not or slightly accresent in fruit, ultimately reflexed, fused at the base or nearly to the middle, pubescent on both sides; lobes lanceolate to ovate, acute to acuminate, 4-5 mm broad. Corolla orange-yellow or yellow, 2.5-3.5 cm across; petals obovate, 1-1.5 cm long and broad, claw hairy on the margin. Staminal column 5-7 mm long, stellate pubescent. Fruit. cylindric truncate, 1.5-2 cm across, stellate pubescent; mericarps (14-) 15-20, 10-18 mm long, 7-9 mm broad, acute or somewhat acuminate at the back, erect at maturity and not spreading stellately as in Abutilon ghafoorianum S.Abedin, dehisce after separating from the central axis.

Herbs subshrublike, annual or perennial, erect, many branched, 1-2.5 m, entire plant gray puberulent. Stipules subulate, 1-2 mm, curved outward; petiole 2-4 cm, gray puberulent and sparsely hairy, hairs silklike, ca. 1 mm; leaf blade ovate-orbicular or nearly orbicular, 3-9 × 2.5-7 cm, densely gray stellate puberulent, base cordate, margin irregularly serrate, apex acute or acuminate. Flowers solitary, axillary, 2-2.5 cm in diam. Pedicel ca. 4 cm, articulate near apex, gray stellate puberulent. Calyx green, disk-shaped, 6-10 mm in diam., densely gray puberulent, lobes 5, broadly ovate, apex acute. Corolla uniformly yellow; petals 7-8 mm. Staminal column stellate scabrous. Ovary 15-20-loculed. Fruit black, flat topped, ca. 1.5 cm in diam.; mericarps 15-20, apex acute, slightly awned, long stellate scabrous. Seeds reniform, sparsely stellate. Fl. Jul-Oct.

Himalaya, India, Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, S. China, Taiwan, S. Japan, Malaysia, Australia, Loyalty Isl.

Distribution: Tropics and subtropics of New and Old Worlds.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam].

200-1100 m

Disturbed sites on sandy soils; below 800(-1500) m.

Sida indica Linnaeus, Cent. Pl. 2: 26. 1756; Abutilon asiaticum (Linnaeus) Sweet; Abutilon cavaleriei H. Léveillé; A. cysticarpum Hance ex Walpers; A. indicum var. populifolium (Lamarck) Wight & Arnott; A. populifolium (Lamarck) G. Don; S. asiatica Linnaeus; S. populifolia Lamarck.