Monographs Details:
Authority:
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
Family:
Malvaceae
Malvaceae
Description:
Species Description - Quite different in aspect from the tall, large-flowered kinds of Hibiscus, but similar to them in flower-structure, this low, slender shrub, for which no popular names are recorded, inhabits the dry southern and southwestern parts of Porto Rico at lower elevations, in the West Indies it grows in Jamaica, from Cuba eastward to St. Thomas and St. Croix, on St. Bart's and on Curaçao; distribution on the continent extends from Mexico to Venezuela. The shrub is sometimes grown in flower gardens. This species differs from all others of the genus found in Porto Rico by having seeds covered with cotton-like hairs. An account of the genus Hibiscus will be found with our description of Hibiscus bifurcatus. Hibiscus brasiliensis (Brazilian, but the name is not well-applied, although having priority) is a shrub sometimes about 1 meter high, usually lower, with slender branches, the foliage more or less stellate-hairy. The thin, ovate, or rhombic-ovate, coarsely toothed, pointed leaves are about 8 centimeters long or shorter, stalked, with narrow stipules from 4 to 7 millimeters long. The long-stalked flowers are solitary in the upper leaf-axils; there are 9 or 10, very narrow, pointed involucre-bractlets from 10 to 25 millimeters long; the calyx is about 1 centimeter long, with broad, pointed lobes; the pink, purple or white petals are about twice as long as the calyx. The capsule is about 1 centimeter long, containing several of the characteristically cottony seeds.
Species Description - Quite different in aspect from the tall, large-flowered kinds of Hibiscus, but similar to them in flower-structure, this low, slender shrub, for which no popular names are recorded, inhabits the dry southern and southwestern parts of Porto Rico at lower elevations, in the West Indies it grows in Jamaica, from Cuba eastward to St. Thomas and St. Croix, on St. Bart's and on Curaçao; distribution on the continent extends from Mexico to Venezuela. The shrub is sometimes grown in flower gardens. This species differs from all others of the genus found in Porto Rico by having seeds covered with cotton-like hairs. An account of the genus Hibiscus will be found with our description of Hibiscus bifurcatus. Hibiscus brasiliensis (Brazilian, but the name is not well-applied, although having priority) is a shrub sometimes about 1 meter high, usually lower, with slender branches, the foliage more or less stellate-hairy. The thin, ovate, or rhombic-ovate, coarsely toothed, pointed leaves are about 8 centimeters long or shorter, stalked, with narrow stipules from 4 to 7 millimeters long. The long-stalked flowers are solitary in the upper leaf-axils; there are 9 or 10, very narrow, pointed involucre-bractlets from 10 to 25 millimeters long; the calyx is about 1 centimeter long, with broad, pointed lobes; the pink, purple or white petals are about twice as long as the calyx. The capsule is about 1 centimeter long, containing several of the characteristically cottony seeds.
Discussion:
Low Hibiscus Mallow Family Hibiscus brasiliensis Linnaeus, Species plantarom,edition 2, 977.1763. Hibiscus phoeniceus Jacquin, Hortus Botanicus Tindobonensis 3: 11.1776.
Low Hibiscus Mallow Family Hibiscus brasiliensis Linnaeus, Species plantarom,edition 2, 977.1763. Hibiscus phoeniceus Jacquin, Hortus Botanicus Tindobonensis 3: 11.1776.
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