Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Herbaceous or subshrubby perennial usually less than 1 m tall, minutely pubescent or glabrate throughout; stems simple or sparingly branched.

Leaves: Alternate with short pilose petioles; ovate to oblong-elliptic or narrowly lanceolate, subobtuse to acuminate, serrate, to 6cm long.

Flowers: Solitary or in clusters of 2 or 3 opposite the leave; pedicels to 5 mm long; sepals and petals 5, rarely 4; sepals linear-lanceolate, acuminate, to 8 mm long; petals yellow, obovate to linear spatulate, a little shorter than sepals; stamens 10; flowering throughout the year.

Fruits: Capsule slender, siliquelike, to 6 cm long and 4-celled, ascending or spreading, flattened contrary to the septum, apressed-puburlent, longitudinally dehiscent.

Ecology: Waste places, along roadsides, canyons, riparian forests and washes in grassland, mesquite and Sonoran scrub; 0 - 3281 ft (0 - 1000 m).

Distribution: se AZ, e and c TX, s AL and s FL; south through MEX, central and south America.

Notes: Rarely collected in the US and distinguished by having long pubescence throughout the plant, lanceolate-oblong-elliptic, serrate leaves with well-defined veins, bright yellow flowers in which the petals are planar with many stamens projecting upwards, and flowers/fruits in clusters alternating up the stem and sometimes opposite the leaves. Possession of elongated capsules combined with these other characters is also diagnostic.

Ethnobotany: Used by the Guyanan Patamona Indigenous tribes: macerated and used as an anti-fungal, treatment for dermatitis, eczema, measles, or other sores. Also pounded, mixed with water and rubbed on head as an insecticide. The fiber -Jute- is made from members of this genus and is used extensively throughout the world.

Etymology: From the Greek korchoros (Theophrastus) applied to a poor pulse (legume) growing wild. Hirtus is latin meaning hairy, shaggy or covered with hair.

Synonyms: Corchorus hirtus var. glabellus, Corchorus hirtus var. orinocensis, Corchorus orinocensis

Editor: FSCoburn 2014