Flora Somalia, Vol 2, (1999) Author: by M. Thulin [updated by M. Thulin 2008]
Names
PAVONIA sp. [family MALVACEAE], = Beckett 1292.
Information
Shrubby herb or shrublet, up to 0.7 m tall; stems pubescent to tomentose with stellate long simple hairs and minute glandular hairs. Leaves pubescent to tomentose; petiole 3–30 mm long; blade broadly ovate or broadly elliptic to suborbicular, some often somewhat 3-lobed, up to 25 x 25 mm, rounded to slightly cordate at the base, subacute to rounded at the apex, with coarsely dentate margins. Flowers solitary in leaf axils; pedicels 5–22 mm long, articulated 3–8 mm below the calyx. Epicalyx bracts (7–)9–11, 5–8 mm long in flower. Calyx 4–5 mm long, pubescent, and with long simple hairs along margins. Petals 7–12 mm long, white or sometimes yellow. Mericarps 4.5–6 mm long, with 1–2 mm wide wings, pubescent on the back.
Range
N1
Altitude range
35–230 m.
Distribution
SOMALIA Gillett 4487; Glover & Gilliland 826.
Distribution (external)
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Notes
Gillett 4487 was cited as P. sennii by Hutchinson & Bruce in Kew Bull. 7: 106 (1941). P. sp. = Beckett 1292 is equivalent to “ P. sp. = Gilbert et al. 7523” in Fl. Eth. 2(2): 234 (1995). The flowers are recorded as white except in Gilbert & al. 7523 from south-eastern Ethiopia which is said to have bright yellow flowers. This taxon seems to be closely related to the widespread and pink-flowered P. triloba Guill. & Perr., and is possibly no more than a colour form of this.
