Turk's-cap

Malvaviscus arboreus is an evergreen to semi-deciduous shrub or small tree of the Malvaceae family, typically 1 to 4 metres tall, native from the southern United States through Mexico, Central America and into northern South America. The stems are slender, terete and softly hairy when young. Leaves are alternate, simple, long-petioled, broadly ovate to triangular-ovate, 5 to 15 centimetres long, sometimes shallowly three- to five-lobed, with crenate to serrate margins and a softly pubescent surface bearing prominent palmate venation from a cordate or truncate base. The conspicuous flowers, borne singly in upper leaf axils, are bright scarlet to red and resemble miniature hibiscus blooms that never fully open; the five overlapping petals form a tube about 4 to 7 centimetres long, from which the staminal column and red-purple stigmas protrude. Pollination is by hummingbirds and large butterflies. The fruit is a fleshy red berry-like schizocarp about 1 centimetre across that splits into five mericarps at maturity. The plant occurs in moist forest understorey, along streambanks and in disturbed thickets.