Hibiscus aculeatus

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Common name: comfortroot; savanna Hibiscus

Hibiscus aculeatus
Hibiscus aculeatus.jpg
Hibiscus aculeatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class: Dicots
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae
Genus: Hibiscus
Species: H. aculeatus
Binomial name
Hibiscus aculeatus
Walter
HIBI ACUL dist.jpg
Natural range of Hibiscus aculeatus from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Taxonomic notes

Synonym: Hibiscus scaber Michx. USDA NRCS Plants Database

Description

"Shrubs or perennial or annual herbs with stellate pubescence. Leaves unlobed to palmately lobed or dissected; petioles usually long; stipules present, usually caduceus flowers solitary in the upper leaf axils, or in terminal racemes; peduncles and pedicels present or the peduncle obsolete, often elongating in fruit. Involucral bracts 7-15, linear. Sepals 5, widely triangular to triangular-lanceolate, enlarged in fruit; petals oblanceolate to obovate, apex rounded; stamens usually numerous; stigmas 5, capitate, styles free near apex. Capsule 5-locular." [1]

"Perennial with spreading-ascending or, less frequently erect branches to 1m tall. Trichomes of stems, petioles, leaves and pedicels short, bristly, stellate, scabrous. Leaves palmately 3-5 cleft or lobed, 3-9 cm long, mostly wider than long, coarsely and irregularly serrate, truncate to cleft with an inverted broad, V-shaped sinus; petioles 2-10 cm long. Flowers in leafly-bracteate racemes, bracts less divided than the leaves or entire; peduncles obsolete or to 2 mm long; pedicels 5-12 mm long, elongated slightly in fruit, usually with a few long white trichomes; Involucral bracts 8-10, linear, 1-2 cm long, usually palmately or pinnately cleft at apex. Calyx lobes triangular-lanceolate, 8-12 mm long, acute, elongated in fruit, distinctly keeled to the apex and with a thickened margin resembling the keel, pubescent with long stiff, postulate-based trichomes; petals cream, turning a deeper yellow and finally fading to pink, crimson marked at base, 5-6 cm long. Capsule gradually contracted to a beak, 1.7-2 cm long, pubescent with mixed short and long, bristle-like trichomes. Seeds brown, with fine reticulations and with a few whitish papillate, 3.5-4 mm long." [1]

Distribution

Hibiscus aculeatus is found along the southeastern coastal plain, from North Carolina south to Florida and west to Texas.[2] Within this distribution, it is found from southeastern North Carolina south to south central peninsular Florida and west to Louisiana and Texas.[3]

Ecology

Phenology

H. aculeatus has been observed to flower May to September with peak inflorescence in July.[4]

Conservation and management

Cultivation and restoration

Photo Gallery

References and notes

  1. Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 Radford, Albert E., Harry E. Ahles, and C. Ritchie Bell. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. 1964, 1968. The University of North Carolina Press. 704-6. Print.
  2. Jump up USDA, NRCS. (2016). The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 22 May 2019). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC 27401-4901 USA.
  3. Jump up Weakley, A. S. (2015). Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States. Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Herbarium.
  4. Jump up Nelson, G. PanFlora: Plant data for the eastern United States with emphasis on the Southeastern Coastal Plains, Florida, and the Florida Panhandle. www.gilnelson.com/PanFlora/ Accessed: 12 DEC 2016