Sida szechuensis Matsuda

The fibers are widely used, and the entire plant is of medicinal use.

Subshrubs erect, to 1 m tall. Branchlets stellate pubescent. Stipule subulate, shorter than petiole; petiole 5-10 mm, stellate pubescent; leaf blade broadly rhombic to flabellate to oblong-elliptic to oblong, 2-5 × 2.5-5 cm; blades on distal part of stem smaller and relatively narrower, abaxially densely gray stellate tomentose, adaxially sparsely stellate pubescent to subglabrous, base rounded to cuneate, margin irregularly dentate to double dentate, apex acute to obtuse, rounded. Flower solitary, axillary, often congested at shoot apex. Pedicel 0.6-1.5 cm, densely stellate pubescent and viscid-hairy, articulate above middle. Calyx cup-shaped, ca. 7 mm, lobes triangular, sparsely stellate pilose. Corolla yellow, 1-1.5 cm in diam.; petals obovate, ca. 8 mm. Filament tube ca. 5 mm, long hirsute. Schizocarp nearly globose, ca. 6 mm in diam.; mericarps 8 or 9, segmentiform, ca. 3 mm, obscurely transversely wrinkled to base, side walls veined, abaxially grooved near apex, upper surface stellate puberulent, beak acuminate, splitting from apex, each side merging into a flattened, ca. 0.7 mm awn. Seeds black-brown, ca. 2 mm, smooth, white pilose. Fl. Jun-Nov.

Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan.

● Scrub, streamsides, roadsides; 300-1800 m.