FoI
Bladder Mallow
Share Foto info
Bladder Mallow
P Naturalized Herb ovate Photo: S. Kasim
Common name: Bladder Mallow, Curly abutilon
Botanical name: Herissantia crispa    Family: Malvaceae (Mallow family)
Synonyms: Abutilon crispum, Abutilon cistiflorum

Bladder Mallow is a perennial or sometimes annual herb growing up to about 1.5 m tall, usually taking a trailing or creeping form. It is covered in whitish hairs. The oval or heart-shaped leaves are up to 7 cm long with wavy margins. Flower emerge singly from leaf axils, borne on a long-haired flower-stalk which is half erect and then jointed downward. The flower has five pale yellow oval petals each up to a cm long. The fruit is a lantern-like inflated sphere ribbed into segments. It is up to 2 cm wide, coated in long hairs, and splitting, each segment containing 2 or 3 black kidney-shaped seeds. Bladder Mallow is a native of America, now a Pantropical weed.

Identification credit: S. Kasim Photographed in Vellore, Tamil Nadu.

• Is this flower misidentified? If yes,