''Abutilon incanum'', also known as hoary abutilon, pelotazo, pelotazo chico, tronadora, and ''mao'' (

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

), is a

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

widespread throughout the arid, warm regions of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico as well as

. It grows to between in height; the leaves are

ovate Ovate may refer to: * Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe * Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd * Vates or ovate, a term for ancient Celtic bards ...

to lance-ovate in shape, with

crenate A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, fl ...

margins, and sizes ranging from in width and in length. The solitary 5-petaled

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s are generally orange; in ssp. ''incanum'' they are long and orange-yellow, while in ssp. ''pringlei'' they are just and a deep orange with maroon spots. The fruits are capsules with 4–6 cells. It favors rocky slopes and gravelly flats, and occurs in arroyos, at elevations up to . Requiring warm-season rain and mild winters, it is found in the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...

, but not the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

. In Hawaii, ''mao'' can be found growing in

dry forests The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

and low shrublands at elevations from sea level to .

References

External links

''Abutilon incanum'' information
from th
Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR)
incanum Flora of Arizona Flora of Baja California Flora of Hawaii Flora of Sinaloa Flora of Sonora Plants described in 1822 Flora of Baja California Sur {{Malveae-stub