Plants annual or perennial herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs; indumentum mostly of stellate hairs. Leaves stipulate; stipules filiform to lanceolate; blades entire to deeply lobed or divided, margins variously toothed to entire. Inflorescences axillary, of single flowers or clusters of flowers or in racemes or panicles. Calyces 5-lobed; petals white, yellow, pink, or purple, sometimes with a dark base; ovaries of 5 free carpels around a cshort, conical receptacles, with 1 ovule each; styles with 10 branches and capitate stigmas. Fruits subglose schizocarps; mericarps 5, usually indehiscent, sometimes winged, spiny, rugose, or with 3 retrorsely barbed awns.
Pavonia includes about 250 species. It grows in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world. According to the Flora of Somalia, there are 22 species in Somaliland and Somalia.
Note: GBIF records include introduced and cultivated plants. Consequently, the distribution shown often differs from statements about a taxon's native distribution.