Plant Name
Scientific Name: Anoda abutiloides
Common Names: Indian Anoda, False Indian-mallow
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Annual
Growth Habit: Subshrub, Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert, Upland. This wildflower grows in upper elevation desert foothills and in upland canyons and chaparral.
Flower Color: Buttery yellow
Flowering Season: Summer, Fall
Height: To 3 feet (1 m) tall or more
Description: The flowers are in loose panicles above the leaves. The individual flowers are 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide, solid yellow wilting to reddish orange, and have 5 crinkled, fan-shaped petals and a distinctively hairy central staminal column. The flowers are followed by plump, flattened, hairy schizocarps with 5 mericarps (sections). The leaves are green above and below, hairy, toothed, alternate, and heart-shaped with a long, tapering tip. The stems are green, erect or leaning, and glandular-hairy.
The similarly large and yellow-flowered Sonoran Indian Mallow (Abutilon mollicomum, formerly A. sonorae), Yellowflower Indian Mallow (Abutilon reventum), and Velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti) all have flowers with a hairless staminal column.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Dilleniidae
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae – Mallow family
Genus: Anoda Cav. – anoda
Species: Anoda abutiloides A. Gray – Indian anoda
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