Abutilon ramosum (Cav.) Guill. & Perr.

Abutilon species are herbs, undershrubs or shrubs. Erect or procument, Branches with simple prickly or stellate hairs. Leaves simple or sometimes lobed, alternate, usually base cordate, margins crenate-dentate, apex acute to acuminate, palminerved without nectaries, petiolate, stipules persistent or caducous. Inflorescence usually axillary or terminal, solitary or aggregated lax panicles or corymbose racemes. Flowers bisexual, pedicel slender, jointed in the upper half, epicalyx absent, calyx 5 lobed, campanulate, base connate, valvate, corolla large, 5, yellow, white, orange, sometimes with dark colored in the centre. Stamens usually shorter than petals, base wide, filaments short, anthers basifixed, usually clustered. Ovary superior, 5-20 locular, ovules 2-9 per carpel, style branched 5-40, filiform to clavate, stigma capitate. Fruit schizocarp, ovoid-subglobular, campanulate, apex biaristate or acuminate, usually black when mature, with 5-40 mericarps, dehiscent, with a slender truncate columella scar when fallen. Seed many, reniform or subreniform, smooth, glabrous or shortly pubescent.

Flowering class: Dicot Habit: Shrub

Flowering and fruiting: August-January

Abutilon species flowers are complete, bisexual, i.e., with functional male (androecium) and female (gynoecium), including stamens, carpels and ovary. Pollination is entomophilous i.e., by insects, or cleistogamy i.e., by self or allogamy i.e., by cross pollination. Flowering/Fruiting: August—October/September—March.

Seeds may be dispersed by autochory i.e., self dispersal, anemochory i.e., wind dispersal, zoochory i.e., dispersal by birds or animals, anthropochory i.e., dispersal by humans.

Perennial herbs or undershrubs, about 1-3 m tall. Stems and branches densely grayish pubescent with simple stellate hairs, becoming glabrescent later. Leaves simple, alternate, broadly ovate, about 2.5-13 x 2-11.5 cm across, base cordate, margins irregularly crenate-dentate, apex acute to shallow narrow acuminate, 5-7 veined, glabrescent or minutely pubescent with simple hairs above and lower surface stellate pubescent beneath, petiole stellate hairy, about 2-12 cm long, stipules linear, pubescent, about 5-10 mm long. Inflorescence usually axillary or terminal, solitary or dichotomously branched cymes, tomentose, about 1.5-4.5 cm long. Flowers bisexual, pedicel slender, jointed in the upper half, stellate pubescent, about 1-6 cm long, epicalyx absent, calyx 5 lobed, campanulate or cup shaped, base connate, valvate, divided from middle, lobes ovate, apex acute, densely pubescent with simple and stellate hairs outside, simple hairs inside, about 4-6 x 2-3 mm across, corolla large, 5, yellow, white, petals obovate, glabrous, about 5-8 x 3-4 mm across. Stamens usually shorter than petals, base wide, stellate hairy, about 2-3 mm long, anthers basifixed. Ovary superior, stigma capitate. Fruit schizocarp, ovoid-subglobular, about 1 cm across, campanulate, villous, with 8-10 mericarps, margins dense with stellate hairs, apex bidentate, dehiscent. Seeds 2-3 per locule, reniform or subreniform, about 2 mm across, smooth, minutely stellate pubescent, ultimately glabrescent, brownish black.

Abutilon species are susceptible to various insect pests, virus and fungi, affecting leaves, fruits and roots.

Notes: Western Ghats, Dry Deciduous Forests

Disturbed forest areas

Dry tropical places.

Not evaluated (IUCN).

Root powder used in folk medicine, bark used to make fibre.

Indigenous Information: Good fodder for cattle.