Malvaceae

Malvaceae is a family of plants that includes mallows, Hibiscus, and monkshood (order Malvales), containing at least 4,000 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees. Members of the Malvaceae family have simple, alternate leaves with palmately veined stipules. Bisexual flowers with actinomorphic characteristics most often occur. The perianth comprises five sepals that are valvate or basally connate, and five distinct petals attached to the androecium. There are numerous Monadelphous stamens with filaments apically diverging and one-celled anthers on the androecium. In the gynoecium, there is a single compound pistil containing two kinds of carpels, an equal number of styles, and a superior ovary housing two types of locules, each having one sort of ovule. Among the fruits of this plant, there are loculicidal capsules, schizocarps, berries, and samaras.

Description

Systematic Position:

• Class: Dicotyledons.
• Subclass: Polypetalae. 
• Series: Thalamiflorae. 
• Order: Malvales. 
• Family: Malvaceae.  

Families under order Malvales: 

1. Malvaceae. 
2. Sterculiaceae. 
3. Tiliaceae.

The herbs, shrubs, and trees are all common types of plants found in the Malvaceae family. The wild can be home to many annual and perennial herbs, for example, Abutilon, Malva, Malvastmm, Hibiscus sp., etc. Sida cordifolia and Sida carpinifolia are two species that grow under shrubs. 

A detailed description of members in the Malvaceae family is as follows:

Flowers

• Inflorescences typically consist of a single flower, although sometimes they are reduced to cauliflorous, oppositifolius, or terminal inflorescences. 
• Their structures are often arranged in bicolour units with excessive bracts. Often associated with conspicuous bracts–in the form of an epicalyx– unisexual or bisexual plants can be described as actinomorphic. 
• The petals generally have five imbricate and five valvate sepals, often connate at the base. 
• Typically, 5-10 stamens are arranged in a tube around the pistil connate at their bases, often forming a tube around the stamens.
• It consists of two to many connate carpels. With axial placentation, the ovary has capitate or lobed stigmas. Many glandular hairs make up the nectaries, usually found on the sepals of the flowers. 

Stem

It has branched, erect, branched at the nodes, cylindrical, solid, with stellate hairs usually on the stem. The tissues contain copious amounts of mucin.

Leaves

The leaves seen in the members of this family are simple or alternate, rounded, palmately divided, stipulate, generally palmately veined forms. Several stellate hairs cover the leaves. There are also mucin sacs on the leaves.

Inflorescence

Cymose inflorescences are rare, and racemose inflorescences are more common in the Malvaceae family. The terminal can be solitary or compound, depending on the type of flower.

Androecium

• Stamens mounted on staminal tubes arranged in an indefinite manner form this flower. 
• Their arrangement is monadelphous. It is known as epipetalous when the staminal tube and petals remain united at the base. 
• Monothecous anthers consist of one-celled, dorsifixed filament with short filaments. Another dehiscence is transverse.
• From five antipetalous stamens, the stamens are profusely branched. Five staminodes are present in hibiscus as a substitute for the outer whorl.

Gynoecium

• Polycarpellary, with five to indefinitely many carpels (syncarpous). There are multiple locules in the ovary. 
• A considerable number of ovules are located in each loculus. The placenta is found at the axis. The stigmas are not joined, but the styles are. Styles travel down the staminal tube.
• Approximately the same number of stigmas are present in carpels.
• The petals of hibiscus have five carpels, those of althaea rosea have 10, and those of abutilon are indeterminate.

Fruit

Loculicidal capsules or schizocarps appear in clusters from where several mericarps split off. A mericarp has the same number of carpels as a carpel. A loculicidal capsule is the fruit of hibiscus and Gossypium.

Seed

Testa coverings are usually used to bury seeds and are reniform (kidney-shaped) or as ovoids. There are a lot of folded cotyledons in the embryo. There is not much endosperm.

Taxonomy

Before DNA studies at the end of the 20th century, there were many genera included in Malvaceae which were thought to be closely related, but few were later grouped into four family groups: Malvaceae, Bombacaceae, Tiliaceae, and Sterculiaceae, the latter of which early botanists considered to be a genus of plants called Malvales. The APG III concluded most genera within these families form evolutionary lineages instead of maintaining artificial ones.

Distribution

In general, this family’s members are globally distributed. They are particularly known for their tropical origins. Many species of this family grow in our country, such as hibiscus, sida, Malvastrum, Malva, abutilon, Gossypium, and so on. The cotton genus is one of the members of the Gossypium family.

Importance

• Modiola caroliniana, as well as other species that are escapees from gardens, are pests in agriculture. 
• As with the durian fruits, the baobab fruit and leaves are edible.
• Several species of hibiscus grow in gardens, including Hibiscus rosa-Sinensis and Alcea rosea. 
• In horticulture, the family Malvaceae has been used for centuries to make fibres, food, medicine, and timber, with a brief explanation of their hazards (toxins, allergens, irritations), in addition to the possibility of weed or invasive species growing among them.

Medicinal uses:

1. The plants included in this family are believed to be stimulants and effective remedies for chest and lung complaints.
2. This family also serves as an emollient.
3. It is reported that the methanol and ethyl extract of this plant possess antibacterial activity against pneumonia, Bacillus subtilis, Proteus Vulgaris, and E. coli bacteria.
4. In addition to anti-inflammatory properties, the leaves are also a powerful antioxidant.
5. Analgesic activity is noted at 50 mg/kg and 1,000 mg/kg of hibiscus bark extract, respectively.
6. A plant in this family has anti-proliferative properties. Additionally, it is anti-allergic.
7. It is found that fermentation acid, purified from this plant’s leaf extract, inhibits insulin resistance in skeletal muscle cells.

Conclusion

Thus, the Malvaceae is a family of plants that includes mallows, Hibiscus, and monkshood (order Malvales), containing at least 4,000 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees. It is found in every part of the world except the coldest, with the most incredible numbers in the tropics. Cotton, hibiscus, and okra are some species with economic significance.