52. Wissadula Medikus, Malvenfam. 24. 1787.
[Presumably Sinhalese wissa, poison, and duvili, dust or powder; common name wissaduli used for plants of Centipeda minima (Linnaeus) A. Braun & Ascherson and misapplied here]
Paul A. Fryxell
Steven R. Hill
Subshrubs [perennial herbs]. Stems usually erect, hairy [glabrate], not viscid. Leaves distalmost sometimes subsessile; stipules usually persistent, filiform, subulate, or minute; blade broadly ovate to ovate-triangular [narrowly triangular], unlobed, base cordate, margins entire [crenate-dentate], surfaces usually stellate-hairy [sometimes glabrate]. Inflorescences terminal panicles or racemes; involucel absent. Flowers: calyx not accrescent, not inflated, shorter than mature fruits, lobes not ribbed, triangular; corolla usually yellowish, sometimes white, rotate; staminal column exserted; style 3–6-branched; stigmas capitate. Fruits schizocarps, erect, not inflated, obovoid, not indurate; mericarps 3–6, 2-celled, apex bulbous-apiculate, proximal cell indehiscent, distal cell dehiscent. Seeds (1–)3 per mericarp, lower cell 1-seeded, upper cell usually 2-seeded, hairy, proximal seed relatively more densely hairy. x = 7.
Species 25 (3 in the flora): sc United States, Mexico, West Indies, South America, s Asia, Africa.
SELECTED REFERENCE Fries, R. E. 1908. Entwurf einer Monographie der Gattungen Wissadula und Pseudabutilon. Kongl. Svenska Vetensk. Acad. Handl., n. s. 43(4): 1–114.
