guaxuma vs malva-branca

Sida glomerata compared with Sida cordifolia

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	guaxuma	malva-branca
Kingdom same	Plantae (plantas)	Plantae (plantas)
Phylum same	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)
Class same	Magnoliopsida (Dicots)	Magnoliopsida (Dicots)
Order same	Malvales (Malvales)	Malvales (Malvales)
Family same	Malvaceae	Malvaceae
Genus same	Sida	Sida
Species	Sida glomerata	Sida cordifolia

Evolutionary Relationship

guaxuma and malva-branca share a common ancestor at the Genus level: Sida.

Conservation Status

guaxuma

LC — Least Concern

malva-branca

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	guaxuma	malva-branca
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

guaxuma

Habitat

Inhabits tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests within the Oceanian biogeographic realm.

Range

Distributed across Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, and Samoa.

malva-branca

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical grasslands and savannas, and deserts and xeric shrublands spanning the Australasia and Afrotropic and Palearctic realms. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (8 countries), Asia (5 countries), Europe (Sweden), North America (4 countries), Oceania and the Pacific (4 countries), and South America (Brazil, Colombia).

guaxuma

Sida glomerata, the clustered fanpetals, is a perennial herb or subshrub in the family Malvaceae native to tropical and subtropical Americas, with distribution also recorded in the Pacific Islands. The genus Sida is a pantropical group of about 150–200 species of mallows, many of which are weedy pioneers of disturbed habitats. S. glomerata produces small yellow, five-petaled flowers typical of the mallow family, with flowers clustered in the leaf axils. The leaves are alternate, simple, and often covered in stellate hairs. Like other Sida species, it grows in disturbed open habitats including roadsides, waste ground, pastures, and forest margins. Members of the genus are used medicinally in traditional systems across tropical regions, with fiber extracted from stems in some species. S. glomerata is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN, being a common and adaptable species across its tropical range. The pantropical distribution of many Sida species has been facilitated by their association with human-disturbed habitats and their ability to produce abundant, persistent seeds.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 3 countries:

🇧🇷 Brazil 🇨🇴 Colombia 🇨🇺 Cuba