Gen info
- Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants containing about 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well known members of economic importance include cacao, cola, cotton, okra, roselle, and durian. Its circumscription is controversial. (3)

Botany
• Herbs, perennial, or subshrubs, 0.5-1(-3) m, most parts principally stellate pubescent, also with some simple hairs. Stipules filiform, 4-5 mm; petiole 0.5-3.5 cm; leaf blade ovate to oblong, rarely slightly 3-lobed, 2-6(-7) × 1.2-4(-6) cm, both surfaces stellate pubescent, base acute, obtuse, or truncate to slightly cordate, margin serrate, apex acute to acuminate. Flowers congested into a dense short terminal spike, 1.5-3(-10) × ca. 1 cm, usually only 1 flower open at a time. Epicalyx lobes filiform to lanceolate, acuminate, 8-10 × 1.5-2.5 mm, abaxially hispid with simple or bifurcate hairs and minute stellate hairs, adaxially glabrous. Calyx shallowly cup-shaped, 5-6 mm in diam., accrescent to 6-10 mm in fruit, lobes triangular, ca. 4 × 3 mm, abaxially densely hirsute, adaxially minutely stellate pubescent, apex acuminate. Corolla yellow, 1.3-1.7 cm in diam.; petals obliquely obovate, claw stellate ciliate, apex asymmetrically emarginate. Filament tube 2-3 mm, stellate pubescent. Mericarps (5-)8-15(-18), nearly orbicular, (1-)2-2.5 × 1.5-3(-5) mm in diam., cusps absent, endoglossum usually present, minute. Seeds gray, reniform, 1.2-1.7 mm in diam., glabrous. (Flora of China)

Distribution
- Introduced. (2)
- Naturalized. (1)
- Native to Argentina Northeast, Aruba, Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Cayman Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Florida, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Texas, Trinidad-Tobago, Turks-Caicos Is., Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. (2)
- In open places, often in disturbed soils, growing along roadsides, in ditches and waste places, at elevations up to 1,000 m. (4)

Properties
- Considered of emollient, detersive, mucilaginous.

Parts used
Leaves.

Uses
Edibility
- No info found on edibility.
Folkloric
- No reported folkloric medicinal use in the Philippines.
- Decoction of leaves, combined with Croton flavens leaves, drunk to stimulate menstruation. (4)

Studies
• No studies found specific for M. americanum: Info suggests shared biological activities with closely related species, Malvastrum coromandelianum (see: Babara / False mallow).

Availability
- Wild-crafted.

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Malvaceae: Malvastrum americanum / Co's Digital Flora Database
(2)
Malvastrum americanum / KEW: Plants of the World Online
(3)
Malvaceae / Wikipedia
(4)
Malvastrum americanum / Ken Fern: Tropical Plants Database / Useful Tropical Plants

DOI: It is not uncommon for links on studies/sources to change. Copying and pasting the information on the search window or using the DOI (if available) will often redirect to the new link page. (Citing and Using a (DOI) Digital Object Identifier)