Malesian Malvaceae revised

The Malvaceae have always enjoyed a vivid interest from botanists, in particular on account of the fact that many species have showy flowers and are appreciated as ornamentals throughout the world. In addition many species are of outstanding economical value, e.g. in the genera Gossypium and Hibiscus. Finally several species are weeds which have been dispersed by human agency far beyond their original areas of distribution and thus have had more chance to attract the attention of collectors. The wide variability of most species has offered annoying difficulties to botanists when trying to delimitate these species or their infraspecific taxa, resulting into an alarming accumulation of names. Despite the often painstaking studies by many botanists, either on the whole family in a restricted area, or of certain genera throughout the world, there is still a great deal of work to be done and no revision of the family has ever been made for the Malesian area.