Florida keys indian mallow

Abutilon hirtum is a softly hairy perennial herb or subshrub of the mallow family (Malvaceae), typically reaching 1 to 2 metres tall, with stems clothed in dense spreading hairs mixed with stellate tomentum. The leaves are alternate, long-petioled, broadly ovate to nearly circular with a cordate base and an acuminate tip, the margins toothed and both surfaces velvety. Flowers are solitary in the upper leaf axils or gathered into loose terminal clusters, borne on jointed stalks; the five petals are yellow to orange, often with a darker reddish or purplish centre. The fruit is a hairy schizocarp of numerous beaked mericarps arranged in a ring, each containing small kidney-shaped seeds. Widely distributed across tropical Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia, it grows in waste ground, scrub, roadsides, and dry open habitats at low to moderate elevations.