Red or Orinoco jute Red or Orinoco jute

Corchorus hirtus var. glabellus A. Gray; C. hirtus var. orinocensis (Kunth) K. Schumann; C. orinocensis Kunth

Plants herbs, annual. Stems erect, 5–10(–25) dm, puberulent in lines, hairs retrorse, blunt-tipped. Leaves: petiole 2–20 mm; blade narrowly lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, 2–7 cm, base rounded to obtuse, margins crenate-serrate, proximal teeth not prolonged, apex acute, surfaces glabrous or sparsely hirsute-strigose on veins. Inflorescences usually solitary flowers, sometimes fasciculate or cymose, 2–3-flowered. Pedicels 3–4 mm. Flowers: sepals narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 3–5(–7) mm, not awned, hirsute; petals 4–6 mm; stamens 15–25. Capsules cylindric, terete, not wing-angled, 2-valved, distally abruptly constricted to beaklike apex, without awns, (20–)25–45(–60) × 2 mm, sparsely to moderately strigose to strigulose. 2n = 28.

Flowering Jun–Nov. Hammock edges, fallow fields, remnant prairie railroad rights-of-way, wet-weather ponds, lake, stream, and marsh edges, levees, floodplains, roadsides, ditches, grazed pastures, desert grasslands; 0–1500 m; introduced; Ala., Ariz., Fla., Miss., Tex.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America; introduced also in Europe (France), Asia (Afghanistan, Thailand, Turkey), Africa, w Pacific Islands (Philippines), Australia.

In Florida, Corchorus hirtus occurs at 0–50 m, in Texas 20–200 m, in Arizona 1200–1500 m.

Attributions of Corchorus hirtus to Alabama mostly have been based on garden-grown plants from Mobile and Tuscaloosa counties. A single collection of naturalized plants has been seen: Mobile Co., Dauphin Island, pine forest, 17 Oct 1973, Taylor and Taylor 15196 (BRIT). In Mississippi, it is known from collections in 1985 and 1986 from adjacent Issaquena and Sharkey counties (BRIT, VDB; these collections previously have been identified as C. siliquosus).