Malvaceae Hibiscus pernambucensis Arruda

Engraving from H.Sloane (1707 Jamaican voyage... )
| |	© H.Sloane (Sherardian lib. Oxford)

Keywords in this picture :

• Foliage
• Lamina leaf blade
• Vegetative
• Venation
• Leaf parts
• Leaf
• Plant parts

Places where this species can be found :

• Grenada - GRENADA

Species information

Description
Small trees to 6m; stipules to 2.5cm x 1cm; Leaves rounded, deeply cordate, margin entire to serrated; 1-5 glands at base of main nerves below; soflty hairy below; Petals bright yellow; The trees rapidly form impenetrable thickets along the coast and rivers.

Interest
The bark can be used for making ropes and mats, and become stronger when wet. Originally treated as a variety of H.tiliaceus, which is at the very least an Old World sister species of very similar ecology and appearance. This species is widely dristibuted in mangrove and other coastal vegetation. In this and other ways similar to Thespesia, but that species has hairless leaves. The flowers open one at a time on each inflorescence in the morning and close about 4pm; the yellow corolla later falls off and turns pink on the ground. (Corner, 1988). The 'grass' skirts' of Tahitian dancing girls are traditionally made from the cut stems of Hibiscus tiliaceus, and in Hawaii'i the ephemeral flowers are ancient symbols of the human soul.

Specimen information

Collector
Hawthorne, W.D.

Specimen Number
s.n.