Malvaceae

=Family description=
 * Shrubs to trees, with few lianas**, without exudate.
 * Leaves** alternate, spiral, simple, often lobed and tripli- or palmately veined and with stellate hairs that sometimes colour the leaf lower surfaces silvery or golden, toothed leaf margins common. Petioles usually swollen at tip. Stipules present, usually large.
 * Flower**s 5-merous, regular, bisexual, sepals connate, petals free, stamens numerous and fused into a tube which is connected to base of the petals, ovary superior. With an epicalyx, i.e. like an addional calyx below the real calyx.
 * Fruit** a capsule. Seeds either surrounded by an aril and animal dispersed, or hairy or winged and wind dispersed.

=General info=
 * Distribution** Worldwide, with 250 genera and 4300 species, mostly tropical.
 * Ecology** Almost all possible habitats are used by this family.
 * Uses** Economically a very important family with ornamentals, medicinal use, edible plants, fibers for clothes and mattresses (cotton, kapok), fruits (durian), and timber.
 * Similar to** Dipterocarpaceae but these differ in presence of resin and venation. Some Euphorbiaceae, like //Mallotus//, but these differ in the stipules (small).

=Treated genera=
 * Bombax
 * Grewia
 * Heritiera
 * Hibiscus
 * Pterospermum
 * Scaphium
 * Sterculia

Bombax ceiba

Grewia laevigata

Heritiera littoralis

Hibiscus tiliaceus

Pterospermum javanicum

Scaphium macropodum

Sterculia rubiginosa