Pavonia

Perennial herbs or shrubs, usually stellate-pubescent. Leaves alternate, petiolate, sometimes lobed; stipules linear, persistent. Flowers bisexual, occasionally cleistogamous, usually solitary in leaf-axils, sometimes in small clusters; epicalyx segments 5 (Victorian plants), free or basally connate; calyx 5-lobed, campanulate, persistent in fruit; petals 5, free; stamens numerous; ovary 5-locular, each loculus with 1 ovule; styles 10, stigmas capitate. Fruit a schizocarp; mericarps 5, indehiscent, arranged in a single whorl, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes ornamented; seeds reniform, sometimes pubescent.