Hibiscus tiliaceus Seeds
Wild Cotton Tree, Coast Hibiscus, Lagoon Hibiscus, Tree Hibiscus; Wildekatoenboom, Kusvuurblom
Hibiscus tiliaceus commonly known as Wild Cotton Tree, Coast Hibiscus, Lagoon Hibiscus or Tree Hibiscus in English and Wildekatoenboom or Kusvuurblom in Afrikaans is the only Hibiscus species which really becomes a small tree. It belongs to a family that is unmistakable when in flower, the cotton or hibiscus family. H. tiliaceus is a large, stout, open-branched shrub or small tree with spreading branches. It grows to a height of 3–6 m. Stems long and flexible. Young branches, buds and flowers densely covered with short soft hairs. Bark pale greyish brown, smooth or with lenticels (small corky dots on young stems allowing gas exchange between plant and environment), becoming rough with age. Large dark green simple leaves are heart-shaped to almost circular, or broader than long, 30–150 mm in diameter or larger; 5- to 9-veined from the base, veins prominent, each of the main veins with a slit or elongated gland near the base; velvety white to greyish, densely and finely tomentose below , olive-green and glabrescent (becoming hairless) on the upper surface ; apex abruptly pointed; base deeply lobed; margins entire or minutely toothed; petiole (leaf stalk) up to120 mm long , witstellate (star-shaped) hairs, sometimes hairless; stipules ( small appendages at the base of leaves) broad, up to about 30 x 15 mm, ovate-cordate, caducous (falling off during the life of the organism), sheathing the stem, falling off early to leave a scar almost all the way around the stem. The inflorescence seems to be cymose (as in an inflorescence in which the main axis and all side branches end in a flower) but the apparently terminal flowers are really axillary (arising from the axil of a leaf). Bracts (modified leaves associated with flower) ovate; paired with the stipules, each pair occupies the complete circumference of the stem leaving a circular scar after falling off. Flowers large, showy, up to 120 mm in diameter, yellow with dark maroon or blackish centre, deepen to orange or apricot as they mature, flowers fading after 1 day and turn orange-red before they are shed. Flowers have five free petals 60 –70 x 40–60 mm, obovate, twisted. The stamens many, united into a distinctive tube up to 25 mm long around the style.
