Taxonomic Characters of the Staminal Tube and Epicalyx in Brazilian Pavonia (Malvaceae)

This study was based on the analysis of staminal tube and epicalyx morphology of species of Pavonia (Malvaceae) from northeastern and southeastern Brazil. The importance of characters in the infrageneric taxonomy is discussed. In general, the variability in staminal tube and epicalyx characters are useful mainly in separating closely related species and a few sections; these characters, however, cannot be used to separate subgenera.