Entry for PAVONIA burchellii (DC.) Dyer [family MALVACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Somalia
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora Somalia, Vol 2, (1999) Author: by M. Thulin [updated by M. Thulin 2008]
Names
PAVONIA burchellii(DC.) Dyer [family MALVACEAE], (1932). Fig. 36 G.
Information
Shrubby herb or shrub, up to 2 m tall, all parts puberulous to pubescent and usually also with long simple hairs. Leaves with 1–8 cm long petiole; blade broadly ovate, sometimes shallowly 3-lobed, c. 2–14 x 2–10 cm, coarsely dentate, cordate at the base, subacute to acuminate at the apex. Flowers solitary in leaf axils; pedicels 1–7 cm long. Epicalyx bracts 4–6, 5–13 x 2–8 mm, ± broadly elliptic, united at the base, becoming larger in fruit, subacute to rounded at the apex. Calyx 4–7 mm long, lobes ovate, acute, pubescent, glandular and ciliate. Petals bright yellow to orange, sometimes with a purple base, 12–27 mm long. Staminal column 5–15 mm long. Mericarps 4–5 mm long, sparsely puberulous, dorsal keel and lateral ridges smooth or almost so.
Range
N1, 2 Cameroon, and through eastern Africa to South Africa.
Gum musher (Som.). The fruit is said to be edible (Burne 46). Species 1–4 in this account have in recent years often been regarded as one polymorphic species called P. patens (Andr.) Chiov. However, I agree with Vollesen in Fl. Eth. 2(2) (1995) that several species are involved and that P. patens actually is a synonym of Abutilon mauritianum.
