Herbarium JCB

Hibiscus tiliaceus L.

Family : MALVACEAE
Family (As per The Plant List) : Malvaceae
Species : Hibiscus tiliaceus
Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Hibiscus tiliaceus L.
Common name : Tree Mallow, Yellow Mallow Tree
Collection Nos : CJS 18834, Talbot 2175, Bell 7727
Key identification features : A much-branched mangrove and littoral small evergreen tree with stout crooked trunk and numerous spreading branches that almost touch the ground. Leaves are alternate, simple, with a pair of large leaf-like appendages at the base of the petiole, broad and heart-shaped at base and pointy at the apex. Flowers are borne singly in leaf axils or in few-flowered inflorescences at the ends of branches. The petals show wrinkled appearance. The fruit is an ovoid, hairy, 5-valved capsule surrounded by persistent calyx and an outer calyx-like epicalyx. Bark is smoke-grey with white patches and is deeply furrowed.
Habit : Tree
Native : Tropical Asia
Comments : This is the only species of Hibiscus that grows to the size of a tree; yields high quality fibre used for timber-dragging by Elephants; Flowers last one day, bright yellow with deep crimson center and a long staminal column when opened in the morning, turning apricot red in the afternoon. They open out flat as they fall in the evening.
Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
Distribution Locality : Uttara Kannada
Floras referred : Saldanha, 1984