General description:- Herbs, shrubs or small trees with simple (but sometimes deeply palmatisect), alternate, stipulate leaves.
Flowers:- Regular, hermaphrodite. Bracteoles usually present immediately below the calyx, forming an epicalyx. Sepals 5, united at the base; petals 5, free or united slightly at the base. Stamens numerous, the filaments united for most of their length to form a tube which surrounds the ovary and styles. Ovary superior, of 4 or more (usually numerous) carpels; styles usually free.
Fruit:- A schizocarp or a loculicidal capsule.
ABUTILON
General description:- Herbs, shrubs or small trees.
Flowers:- Epicalyx absent. Stigmas terminal, capitate.
Fruit:- A schizocarp; mericarps arranged in a single whorl, each with several seeds, usually dehiscent in situ and not separating readily from the central axis.
Key features:-
1) Epicalyx absent.
2) Annual, with suborbicular leaves.
3) Fruit hairy, each carpel with several seeds.
ALCEA
General description:- Tall perennials with erect stems.
Flowers:- Large, almost stemless (subsessile) in terminal, spike-like racemes. Epicalyx-segments 6(-7), united at the base, smaller than the sepals or about equalling them. Petals distinctly notched at the apex (emarginate). Staminal tube 5-angled, hairless (glabrous). Stigmas lateral, thread-like (filiform). Carpels 18-40.
Fruit:- A schizocarp; mericarps, not splitting open to release their seeds (indehiscent), arranged in a single whorl, hairy at least in centre of dorsal face, each divided by an internal septum into an upper, empty cell and a lower one with a single seed.
Key features:-
1) Staminal tube 5-angled.
2) Flowers at least 30 mm diam. subsessile in a spike-like inflorescence.
ALTHAEA
General description:- Herbs.
Flowers:- Rather small, usually distinctly pedunculate or pedicellate, in racemes or panicles. Epicalyx-segments 6-9, united at the base. Petals obovate, entire or emarginate. Staminal tube terete, hairy. stigmas lateral, filiform.
Fruit:- Mericarps indehiscent, arranged in a single whorl, unilocular, 1-seeded.
Key features:-
1) Mericarps in a single whorl, forming a circular disc.
2) Staminal tube terete.
3) Flowers not more than 30 mm diam, at least some of them on conspicuous pedicels or peduncles.
HIBISCUS
General description:- Herbs or shrubs.
Flowers:- Solitary in leaf-axils. Epicalyx-segments 6-13, linear, free, or united only at the base. Calyx persistent in fruit. Petals not notched (emarginate). Styles free above; stigmas large, pin-headed (capitate), with long small nipple-like projections (papillae).
Fruit:- a 5-locular, loculicidal, subglobose, ovoid or shortly conical capsule; seeds kidney-shaped (reniform), numerous.
Key features:-
1) Fruit at least as long as wide, but not more than twice as long, rounded, with several seeds in each loculus.
2) Calyx persistent in fruit.
LAVATERA
General description:- Herbs or soft-wooded shrubs, usually stellate-pubescent.
Flowers:- Solitary or in clusters in the leaf-axils. Epicalyx-segments 3, more or less united at the base, at least in bud. Petals emarginate. stigmas lateral, filiform.
Fruit:- A schizocarp; mericarps numerous, 1-seeded, usually not splitting open to release their seeds (indehiscent), arranged in a single whorl.
The compound hairs in this genus are described as stellate when they have numerous branches radiating in all directions, and as fasciculate when the branches, which are usually fewer and longer, are only slightly divergent.
Key features:-
1) Epicalyx-segments 2-3 united at the base, at least in bud.
MALVA
General description:- Herbs.
Flowers:- Epicalyx-segments 2-3, free. Petals distinctly notched at the apex.
(emarginate) or 2-lobed, purple, pink or white. Stigmas lateral, thread-like (filiform).
Fruit:- A schizocarp; mericarps numerous, 1-seeded, not splitting open to release their seeds (indehiscent), dark brown or black, arranged in a single whorl around the short, conical or flattened apex of the receptacle.
European species are found principally in dry, open habitats; they are also nitrophilous, and usually occur, therefore, as ruderals or weeds of cultivated ground
Key features:-
1) Mericarps not inflated.
2) Petals emarginate or 2-lobed.
Sect. BISMALVA
Flowers:- Solitary in leaf-axils, or in a congested, terminal raceme.