4998.000 Sida L.

Annual or perennial herbs or suffrutices. Leaves (in ours), serrate, crenate-serrate or lobed. Flowers orange, yellow or cream, usually opening in the morning. Epicalyx 0. Fruit of 5 to 12 mericarps, dehiscent at the apex, base or indehiscent, usually acute, beaked or awned, each containing one seed. Note that Malvastrum coromandelianum looks like a species of Sida and grows in similar habitats, but may be easily separated by its 3 linear epicalyx bracts. Similarly, Hibiscus sidiformis, as the name suggests, somewhat resembles a Sida and, indeed, lacks an epicalyx. However, it would be readily separated by the fruit.

Derivation of name: (oddly) from a Greek name for a water-lily.

Worldwide: c. 200 species in tropical and warm zones, but especially America

Botswana: 7 taxa.