L.
Description
Triumfetta annua L. is a widespread herb of the Old World tropics and subtropics, with a pantropical distribution that GBIF records across tropical Africa (from Ethiopia and Tanzania to Angola, Zambia and South Africa), Madagascar, and southern and southeastern Asia, including China, Nepal, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. In the Himalaya it is a plant of disturbed ground, forest clearings, roadsides, field margins and warm broad-leaved forest, ascending from the lowlands to around 1,500–2,000 m. The October record from Zhemgang in central Bhutan at 1,000 m typifies its occurrence as a seasonal weed of cultivated and ruderal subtropical habitats.
The species is an erect, branching annual herb up to about 1–1.5 m tall, with stems sparsely covered in stellate or simple hairs. The leaves are alternate, long-petiolate, ovate in outline and frequently three- to five-lobed, with serrate margins, an acuminate apex and palmate venation. Small yellow flowers are borne in leaf-opposed or axillary cymose clusters; each flower has five sepals, five petals, numerous stamens and a superior ovary. The diagnostic fruit is a globose, indehiscent capsule densely covered with hooked, glochidiate spines, a burr adapted for epizoochorous dispersal by adhering to animal fur and clothing.
Formerly placed in Tiliaceae, Triumfetta is now treated within an enlarged Malvaceae (subfamily Grewioideae). Its hooked fruits make it an effective colonist and an occasional agricultural weed across continents, while the bark yields a serviceable bast fibre used locally. The genus is taxonomically complex, and its wide ecological amplitude renders T. annua a classic example of a successful tropical synanthropic species.
Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 12, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Bayer & Kubitzki: The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants Vol. V (Malvaceae)