MALLOW FAMILY 



MALVACEAE 



WOOLLY-FRUITED ROSE MALLOW 



Hibiscus lasiocarpos Cav. 



This Rose Mallow is a large perennial herb of low grounds 

 and marshy places from Georgia to Texas, extending up the 

 Mississippi basin to Kentucky and Missouri, and to southern 



Illinois and Indiana. The 

 plant blooms from July to 

 September. 



The stems, in clumps of 

 3-20, are 2-5 feet high and 

 downy pubescent, especially 

 above. The leaves are broad- 

 ly or narrowly ovate, toothed 

 or 3-7-lobed, soft downy on 

 both surfaces and in ad- 

 dition bearing long hairs 

 on the upper surface. 



The large flowers are 



white or rose with deep 



crimson eyes. The petals 



are 5 and the hairy calyx 



5-toothed or cleft. The 



bractlets of the involucel 



are narrow and as long as 



the calyx or shorter, and 



fringed with long marginal 



hairs. The short cylindric 



capsule is densely stiff hairy and opens by 5 valves so that the 



many small, brown and nearly smooth seeds are shaken out by 



the wind. 



More rarely found in swamps and along streams of the state is 

 the Swamp Rose Mallow, Hibiscus Moscheutos L. This is likewise 

 a perennial herb with numerous canelike stems 5-6 teet high. The 

 flowers, produced from July to August, are much like those ot the 

 woolly-fruited species, may be 7 inches across and varying from 

 white through several shades of pink, but are usually rose. The 

 column bears anthers a considerable portion of its length, and the 

 pollen may be white or yellow. The style divides into 5 short 

 branches, each bearing a large stigma. The smooth or sparingly 

 soft-hairy fruit is a capsule with several to many seeds in each of its 

 5 cells. 



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