Wednesday, 12 March 2008
Sterculia images
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
Hibiscus
Another plant from Fullerton Arboretum. I'd place it as a cultivar of Hibicus rosa-sinensis, possibly (note the toothed petal apices) with some Hibiscus schizopetalus in its ancestry, but perhaps there's a Hibiscus expert that knows better.
.Monday, 10 March 2008
Dombeya macrantha
I've been asked to identify another plant, photographed at the Fullerton Arboretum in California.
It has a trimerous laciniate epicalyx, 5 narrow sepals with a stellate indumentum, 5 red petals spirally arranged in a cup-shaped corolla, pentadelphous stamens placed antepetalously, and a gynoecium somewhat obscured by the androecium. The foliage is hairy, and bronzed when young. Obviously not a mallow except in the broadest sense.
Once I had convinced myself it was a dombeyoid I cheated and looked in the collections database on the Fullerton Arboretum website, comparing the 5 species of Dombeya held (it clearly wasn't either of the other two dombeyoids - Pentapetes phoenicea and Trochetiopsis ebenus - held by the institution). It turns out to be Dombeya macrantha, known by the Germans as Madagaskar Linde.
The photographs are - foliage, side view of part open flower, oblique view of flower, front view of flower, young leaves, side view of opening flower
Monday, 25 February 2008
Herrisantia crispa?
I've just received an email with a request for identification, of a couple of photographs of a plant from Key Largo.
It's not a species that I immediately recognise, but it's something in Abutilinae, and on first thought I suspected an Abutilon of some description. However after a little digging around the US malviflora I now suspect Herissantia crispa. Can anyone confirm or correct?
Update: Professor Fryxell confirms that it is Herissantia crispa.
First picture - assorted fruits and leaves
Second picture - a lonely flower