Goosefoot and Mallow Families

The mallow family has about 900 species in about 70 genera (mostly herbs, some shrubs and trees), spread mainly in the tropics and partly in temperate zones. Leaves are simple, with stipules, long-stalked, palmately veined and often palmately lobed. Flowers are regular and bisexual; the calyx is formed by 5 fused sepals and in most is double (an outer whorl of bracteoles); there are 5 free petals; the many stamens have filaments fused into a tube around the pistil; the fruit is a boll or a fruit that splits into little fruitlets. The common mallow is an annual weed 10–40 cm tall of irrigated land; its dried leaf is used in folk medicine. Marshmallow (Althaea officinalis) is a perennial 70–150 cm tall; an infusion of its root is used against cough. Cotton is an annual crop; Uzbekistan grows mainly Mexican (upland) cotton (Gossypium hirsutum, from Central America); there are also the old-world cotton (G. herbaceum, Africa) and Egyptian cotton (G. barbadense, South America). Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) is a fibre plant; baobab (Adansonia) is a tree of the African savanna.