Plant: subshrub; 1-2 m tall, the stems stellate-pubescent to glabrate

Leaves: highly variable in form, often narrowly oblong-linear, hastately toothed to entire, coriaceous, tomentulose, markedly discolorous

INFLORESCENCE: a lax panicle

Flowers: calyx 3-5 mm long; petals yellow (sometimes fading reddish), ca. 1 cm long; staminal column ca. 3 mm long, scabrid to glabrous; styles 5-8

Fruit: FRUITS a schizocarp, oblate, puberulent; mericarps 5-8, dorsally spurred; SEEDS ca. 2 mm long, endocarp not developed

Misc: In open, well-drained habitats; 1400-1700 m (4500-5500 ft); Aug-Nov

REFERENCES: Fryxell, Paul A. 1994. Malvaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 27(2), 222-236.

Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous annuals, to 2 m tall, stems erect, herbage minutely stellate-hairy to glabrous in age.

Leaves: Lower blades ovate, with 0-3 lobes, upper blades generally narrowly oblong to linear, all leaves leathery with entire to dentate margins, surfaces densely white-hairy abaxially (below), adaxial (upper) surfaces green with fewer hairs.

Flowers: Cream to yellow or reddish with age with 5 open and spreading petals, petals wedge-shaped, to 1 cm long and with visible veination, calyxes 6-10 mm in diameter, with short-acuminate lobes, not becoming larger in fruit, staminal columns to 3 mm long, with roughened (scabrid) to glabrous surfaces, styles 5-8, flowers borne in open panicles.

Fruits: Schizocarps roughly square with rounded edges (oblate), with 5-8 mericarps (segments), dorsally spurred, with puberulent surfaces. Seeds to 2 mm long, the endocarp not developed.

Ecology: Found in open, well-drained habitats and in or near disturbed or agricultural land, roadsides, from 1,000-5,500 ft (305-1676 m); flowering August-November.

Distribution: s CA, s AZ, s NM, s TX; south to s MEX.

Notes: Distinguished by being erect and rather delicate, especially late in the season when leaves become reduced and fall off; the creamy white to yellow petals; the elongated, oblanceolate leaves below and narrowly lanceolate leaves above, the bases usually rounded instead of cordate (heart-shaped), like many of the other Anodas. A good identifier for this species are the squarish, segmented fruits. The leaves have a prominent, single vein on the undersides.

Ethnobotany: Unknown.

Synonyms: Many, see Tropicos

Editor: LCrumbacher 2012, FSCoburn 2015

Etymology: Anoda is either a Sinhalese (Ceylonese) name for a species of Abutilon, or Umberto Quattrocchi gives two alternative etymologies: (1) "from the Greek a, "without," and odous, odontos, "a tooth," for the leaves; and (2) from the Greek a, "without," and the Latin nodus, "a joint or node," since the flowering stems lack nodes; the meaning of pentaschista is unknown.