Contemporary Circumscription Compared with A Utah Flora 4th ed.
Bio430
Malvaceae
Malvaceae has been expanded to include Tiliaceae (Basswood; often cultivated as a street or shade tree), Bombacaceae (mostly tropical), and Sterculiaceae (the chocolate family). The floral formula presented below emphasizes the characteristics of the core temperate diversity, which matches the traditional narrow circumscription of this family. The greater variation in flowers required by the broader circumscription is indicated in the small text in parentheses above the larger text in the floral formula.
Key Features
Mostly palmately veined, simple leaves; often with stellate hairs. Calyx frequently subtended by an epicalyx; petals free (from each other), but fused to the monodelphous staminal column; stamens many, monodelphous, with half anthers presented in bottle-brush fashion; fruits capsules or schizocarps.
