Country-mallow

Sida cordifolia, known in Sanskrit as bala or 'country mallow,' is a small perennial herb or subshrub in the family Malvaceae, native to India and pantropical in distribution, growing as a weed of roadsides, wastelands and dry open ground. It reaches 50-150 cm in height, with slender, much-branched, finely stellate-hairy stems and alternate, ovate to broadly cordate, softly velvety leaves 2-6 cm long with crenate margins. From summer through autumn it bears small, solitary or clustered axillary flowers about 1.5 cm across, with five pale yellow to cream petals around a central column of stamens. The fruit is a flattened schizocarp that splits at maturity into eight to ten one-seeded, awned mericarps that cling to passing animals. The whole plant is aromatic and somewhat mucilaginous, and contains the alkaloids ephedrine and vasicinone in its tissues.