Species: Hibiscus tiliaceus
English Name: Cuban Bast
Chinese Name: 黄槿
Family: Malvaceae
Description:
Shrubs evergreen or trees, 4-10 m tall, to 60 cm d.b.h.; bark gray-white. Branchlets glabrous or nearly so, rarely stellate puberulent or stellate. Stipules foliaceous, oblong, ca. 2 × 1.2 cm, stellate pilose, apex rounded, caducous; petiole 3-8 cm; leaf blade nearly orbicular to broadly ovate, 8-15 × 8-15 cm, leathery, green, abaxially densely gray-white stellate puberulent, adaxially very sparsely stellate scaly, glabrescent, basal veins 7 or 9, base cordate, margin entire or obscurely crenate, apex abruptly acuminate. Inflorescence a 1- to few-flowered racemelike cyme, terminal or axillary; peduncle 4-5 cm. Pedicel 1-3 cm, with 1 pair of stipulelike bracteoles at base. Epicalyx lobes 7-10, joined for 1/3-1/2 of length, free lobes 2-2.5 mm, triangular-acuminate with slightly rounded sinuses, densely gray-white stellate puberulent. Calyx 1.5-2.5 cm, connate proximally for 1/4-1/3 of length, lobes 5, lanceolate, stellate puberulent, persistent. Corolla yellow with dark purple center, campanulate, 6-7.5 cm in diam.; petals obovate, 4-4.5 cm, yellow stellate puberulent abaxially. Filament tube ca. 3 cm, glabrous. Style branches 5, slender, with glandular hairs. Capsule subglobose to ovoid, ca. 2 cm, obscurely beaked, densely fascicled-hirsute, valves 5, woody. Seeds reniform, smooth, glabrous. Fl. Jun-Aug.
Photos used under a Creative Commons license
References:
– Wu ZY, Raven PH, Hong DY (eds) (2007). Flora of China, Volume 12: Hippocastanaceae through Theaceae. Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Bot Garden Press, St. Louis