A genus of 9 species of shrubs and trees. Leaves simple, alternate, margins entire or lobed, long petiole. Flowers unisexual, 5-parted, in terminal or axillary clusters (panicles or racemes), calyx yellow, petals absent. Fruit leaf-like, leathery, dehiscing before mature, seed globose. Native to east Asia and one species in east Africa.
Firmiana: after Karl von Firmian, governor of Lombardy region of Italy and supporter of the botanic garden of Padua.
Pronunciation:
fir-me-AH-na
Family:
Malvaceae
Sterculiaceae