Erect, woody perennial herb or small shrub, up to 3 m tall, but usually around 1.5 m tall. Stems and leaves are covered with star-shaped (stellate) hairs, often many branched at the base. Leaves are simple, alternate, with the upper surface rough and the lower surface grayish, broadly ovate, often with 3-5 shallow, angular lobes at apex, up to 10 cm long, margins finely toothed, bases heart shaped, petioles up to 5 cm long, stipules tiny. Flowers are small, showy, hibiscus-like, solitary on short stalks in leaf axils, subtended by 5 basally united (involucral) bracts up to 0.7 cm, calyx 5-lobed, hairy, 5 petals, rose or pink, darker at the base, rounded, up to 1.5 cm long, stamens fused into an obvious pink column beneath a 5-lobed style. Fruits are small, barbed, spiny capsules, up to 1 cm across, with 5 prominent segments each containing 1 dark brown seed (Francis, 2000, Langeland et al., 2008, Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, 2011).
Related crop
- Urena lobata
- Saccharum officinarum
- Oryza sativa
- Rosa canina
- Rosa
- Coffea
- Hibiscus
Related Farm Practice
- Pastures
- Plantations
- Pests
- Hosts
- Plant communities
- Forest plantations
U. lobata is a severe weed in pastures, sugarcane fields, coffee plantations, rice plantations, and perennial crop plantations in many countries around the world (Henty and Pritchard, 1973;Fournet and Hammerton, 1991;Martin and Pol, 2009;Randall, 2012). It is considered a weed in forest plantations in Bangladesh (Akter and Zuberi, 2009) and India (Chandra-Sekar, 2012). U. lobata is also classified as a noxious environmental weed because it has the potential to alter native plant communities by displacing and out-competing native species, changing community structures, and altering ecological functions (Austin, 1999;Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council, 2011;USDA-NRCS;2012).