Texas Gardening: Texas Native Plant Pictures ( Shrubs ), 1 by htop

htop wrote:
Giant Mexican Turk's Cap, Mazapan, Sleeping Waxmallow, Sleeping Hibiscus, Aloalo Pahūpahū (Malvaviscus penduliflorus), Malvaceae Family, naturalized, perennial, evergreen in areas with no freezes (dies to ground and returns in spring in colder zones), blooms summer through fall

County distribution according to the USDA;
http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=Texas&statefip...

Regional Distribution according to Texas A&M:
http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/cgi/vpt_map_name?reg=6&name=<...)+Schery.

Giant Mexican Turk's Cap will grow in Zone 8a and 8b; however, it will freeze to the ground after hard freezes to return in the spring. The stems have fairly dense split hairs. The undersides of the leaves of M. penduliflorus are glabrate (smooth); whereas, the underside of the leaves on M. arboreus are pubescent. The serrated leaves are oval or sword shaped, mostly unlobed and 4-10 cm long with a pointed tip. The flowers are 2 to 2.5 inches (5 to 6 cm) long with protruding stamensflowers and are humming-bird pollinated. In Hawaii, they are occasionally made into lei with each Micronesian style (tied or woven into a flat collar), 40-inch (100-cm) lei needing about 90 blooms.

For more information, see its entry in the PlantFiles:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/170054/

Blooms ... Photo (cropped by htop) courtesy of Forest and Kim Starr.


This message was edited Mar 10, 2008 10:15 PM