Palmer's abutilon

Description

Abutilon palmeri, known as Palmer's abutilon, superstition mallow, and Palmer's Indian mallow is a species of flowering plant native the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. The plant is found in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, and in Southern California in the Sonoran Colorado Desert and adjacent eastern foothill ecotones of the Peninsular Ranges. Abutilon palmeri is a semi-evergreen shrub growing 3-8 feet (0.91-2.44 m) high by 2–5 feet (0.61-1.52 m) wide. The branch and stem coloration is green to reddish brown and pubescent. The alternate leaves are velvety and heart-shaped (nearly round to cordate). The leaves are serrate and densely woolly, giving a bluish, grey-green cast to the foliage. The cup-shaped flowers are yellow to orange with 5 petals and approximately 1 inch (2.5 cm) in size. It blooms for most of the year. The plant produces small, capsular fruits approximately 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) in diameter each. The fruit is multi-parted and covered with silky pubescence similar to the foliage. Abutilon palmeri is cultivated as an ornamental plant by specialty nurseries for planting in native plant, xeriscape, wildlife gardens, and in natural landscaping projects in warm climates. Abutilon palmeri is a species of Magnoliopsida described by Asa Gray. Abutilon palmeri belongs to the genus Abutilon, and the family Malvaceae. Abutilon is a large genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia. General common names include Indian mallow and velvetleaf ornamental varieties may be known as room maple, parlor maple, or flowering maple. The genus name is an 18th-century New Latin word that came from the Arabic ’abū-ṭīlūn, the name given by Avicenna to this or a similar genus. Plants of this genus include herbs, shrubs, and trees. They range in height from about 0.5 to 3 meters (1.5 to 10 feet). The herbage is generally hairy to woolly or bristly. The leaf blades are usually entire, but the occasional species has lobed leaves. They are palmately veined and have wavy or serrated edges. Flowers are solitary, paired, or borne in small inflorescences in the leaf axils or toward the branch tips. The calyx is bell-shaped with five lobes. The corolla is usually bell-shaped to wheel-shaped, with five petals joined at the bases.