Plants annual or perennial herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs, usually with stellate hairs. Leaves stipulae,stipules usually filiform to linear; blades usually entire, rarely shallowly 3-lobed. Inflorescences of solitary flowers or clustered, sometimes on short axillary branches, often aggregated into terminal and lateral panicles. Epicalyces absent; calyces 5-lobed; petals usually yellow united at the base and to the staminal tubes; ovaries of (5-)10-40 carpels around a central axis, each with 3-9 ovules; styles with as many branches as carpels. Fruits subglobose to flattened schizocarps; mericarps usually dehiscing along the central suture; seeds 1-3(-9)m reniform to globose, glabrous to tomentose, smooth to warted.
Abutilon includes 100-150 species and grows in tropical regions throughout the world, often extending into the subtropics. Some species are widespread ruderal species, others are grown as ornamentals and some are cultivatedfor their fibers.
