Plant Name
Scientific Name: Abutilon parvulum
Common Names: Dwarf Indian Mallow, Dwarf Abutilon
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Subshrub, Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert (upper elevation), Upland
Flower Color: Pale orange to pinkish orange
Flowering Season: Spring, Summer, Fall. This wildflower blooms whenever there is sufficient moisture during the warm months of the year.
Height: Up to 16 inches (40 cm) tall
Description: The small flowers emerge singly from the leaf axils and have 5 fan-shaped or rounded petals, a hairless staminal column, yellow-orange anthers, and 5 green, point-tipped sepals that become reflexed (bent backwards) as the fruit develops. The flowers are followed by fuzzy, rounded schizocarps (fruit) with 5 or rarely 6 beaked mericarps (segments). The leaves are up to 2 inches (5 cm) long, light green above and below, alternate, heart-shaped, coarsely toothed, and finely covered with star-shaped hairs. The stems are slender, branched, stellate-hairy, and erect to decumbent.
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: Abutilon Mill. – Indian mallow
Species: Abutilon parvulum A. Gray – dwarf Indian mallow
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