English: White velvetleaf.
Clades: Malvaceae.
Chinese: Ge shuo qing.
Indonesia: Bulung-bulung pager; Nyung-nyungan.
Thailand: Khaao tom; Chan nok; Se-saa-boh.
Synonym: Abutilon periplocifolium; Sida periplocifolia; Wissadula rostrata; Wissadula zeylanica.
Region: Hainan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Thailand; introduced in Africa and America.
Habitat: thickets; near sea level; dry slopes, roadsides; moist thickets, wet forest, and brushy slopes in tropical America; prefers barren and rocky soils.
Use: stripped bark for excellent fibre.
Content: sitosterol, stigmasterol, sitosterol 3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, stigmasterol 3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, phaeophytin A, 132-hydroxy-(132-S)-phaeophytin A, phaeophytin B), 173-ethoxyphaeophorbide, 3,4-seco-urs-4(23),20(30)-dien-3-oic acid, 3-oxo-21β-H-hop-22(29)-ene, dammaradienone, and taraxastenone.
BotanySubshrubs; annual; ± 1 m tall.
Stems: densely fawn stellate puberulent, with both stellate and simple hairs; woody base.
Leaves: stipules subulate, ± 3 mm; petiole 3 to 20 mm, stellate tomentose, with twisted hairs; leaf blade long, triangular, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 3 to 7 by 1 to 3 cm, abaxially stellate, tomentose, adaxially minutely stellate pubescent, base truncate to subcordate, margin entire or shallowly undulate, apex long acuminate to acute.
Flowers: lower ones solitary, axillary; upper flowers in lax, terminal panicles to 80 cm; pedicel 1 to 2 cm, to 4 cm in fruit, puberulent, articulate near tip; flowering from September to Februari.
Calyx: cup-shaped, ± 3 mm, lobes ovate to triangular, acute.
Corolla: pale yellow, ± 7 mm in diameter; petals obovate, ± 4 mm.
Androecium: staminal column glabrous, free filaments many, 1 to 2 mm.
Gunoecium: style short.
Fruit: pseudocapsule; obconic; ± 1 cm in diameter, apically truncate; mericarps with a short mucro, abaxially rounded, subglabrous.
Seeds black; ± 3 mm; single proximal seed densely hairy with simple long hairs; 2 distal seeds stellate hairy or with simple hairs.