Family Malvaceae (Mallow Family).
A pernicious weed to farmers, but to city dwellers an interesting and harmless wild flower. It likes cultivated or recently disturbed ground, and will happily sprout up in a porch planter. Originally it comes from Asia, where it is used both for food and for its tough fiber. This plant was growing on a sunny bank in Beechview that had recently been dug up.
The distinctive crown-shaped seedpods are fascinating to children.
Flowers. Golden yellow; about an inch wide; typical mallow form,
with five regular petals and a column of united stamens; borne in leaf
axils.
Leaves. Quite large, heart-shaped; velvety; strong pinnate
veining; at right angles to fleshy petioles, which are about half the
length of the leaves.
Stems. Thick and fleshy; velvety; about 3 feet high (a meter or so).
Gray describes the genus and the species:
ABÙTILON [Tourn.] Mill. INDIAN MALLOW. Carpels 2-9-seeded, at length
2-valved. Radicle ascending or pointing inward. Otherwise as in Sida.
(Name of unknown origin. )
A. theophrasti Medic. (VELVET LEAF.) Tall annual, 6-12 dm. high; leaves roundish-heart-shaped, taper-pointed, velvety; peduncles shorter than the leaf-stalks; corolla yellow; carpels 12-16, hairy, beaked. (A. Avicennae Gaertn.; A. Abutilon Rusby.) — Waste places, vacant lots in cities, etc. (Nat. from India.)