Perennial herb or shrub, up to at least 1 m tall, all parts greyish tomentose with very short stellate hairs, rarely also with long simple hairs. Leaves with 0.5–8.5 cm long petiole; blade ± broadly ovate, 2–11 x 1.5–8 cm, cordate at the base, acute to rounded at the apex, with subentire to shallowly crenate or serrate margins. Flowers solitary in leaf axils or on short axillary branches; pedicels 1–4(–8) cm long, slender. Calyx 4–10 mm long, divided to about the middle, usually shorter than the fruit. Petals 7–17 mm long, yellow to orange. Mericarps c. 10, 5–9 x 3–4 mm, 2–3-seeded, dorsal angle subacute to mucronate but not awned, tomentose. Seeds c. 2 mm long, papillose.
Range
N1–3; C1, 2; S1–3 fairly widespread in drier parts of tropical Africa, also in Arabia to India.
Wanaa-ad (Som.). Included here is “ A. sp. = Gilbert 2100” in Fl. Eth. 2(2): 244 (1995), which is here regarded as a large-flowered form of A. fruticosum. Petals up to 17 mm long are found in, e.g., Thulin & Warfa 5841A from N3.
