Velvetleaf
Scientific Name: Abutilon theophrasti Medic.
Other Names: abutilon, Butter-print, Elephant ear, Indian-mallow, Pir-marker, abutilon feuille de velours
Family: Mallow Family (Malvaceae)
General Description: Annual, reproducing only by seed.
Habitat: Velvetleaf occurs in southern Ontario where it is increasing in corn, soybeans and other annually tilled crops and in waste places.
Seedlings
- Seedling with stem
- Leaves alternate
- Covered with silky hairs
- Cotyledons are either orbicular or spade-shaped, 10- 15 mm (0.4- 0.6 in.) long
Stems
- 1- 2 m (3- 6½ ft) tall and occasionally taller
- Much-branched in the upper part
- Finely soft-hairy
Leaves
- Alternate (1 per node)
- Broadly heart-shaped
- Large, 7- 20 cm (3- 8 in.) wide with a sharp-pointed apex
- Shallowly round-toothed
- Soft-hairy
- Very velvety to the touch
Flowers
- Single or in small clusters form the leaf axils
- Each with 5 large sepals and 5 yellow to yellow-orange petals
- 1.3- 2.5 cm (1/2- 1 in.) wide when open
- Filaments untie to form a central column as in the mallows
- Circular cluster of 12 to 15 seedpods about 1.3- 2.5 cm (1/2- 1 in.) long, at first green but turning dark brown to black at maturity
- Each individual pod opening with a vertical slit down its back and containing several purplish-brown, V-shaped seeds about 1 mm (1/25 in.) long
- Flowers from late July until autumn
Often Confused With
Common Mallow Seedlings (Common mallow cotyledons lack hairs, and at maturity, the leaves are rounded)