The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Abutilon darwinii

Etymology

Abutilon: from the Arabic word for a mallow-like plant.

Common Name(s)

Chinese lantern

Authority

Abutilon darwinii Hook.f. × A. pictum

Family

Malvaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Trees & Shrubs

Habitat

Terrestrial.

Features

Perennial shrub to c. 3m high. sometimes suckering to form thickets. Stems sparsely hairy with short stellate hairs and scattered short simple hairs, becoming more or less glabrous. Leaves densely clothed in fine stellate hairs below, more or less glabrous to moderately hairy with simple and stellate hairs above, lighter green below, broadly ovate to suborbcular, cordate at base, usually 3-(5) lobed, to 1/4 -1/2 radius, crenate or serrate 6-15-(18)cm long; petioles 2-20 cm long; stipules narrow-oblong to lanceolate, 6-12 mm long, deciduous. Flowers axillary, usually solitary or sometimes 2-3 in fascicles; fruiting pedicels up to 20 cm long; calyx shallowly campanulate; calyx teeth much greater than tube, triangular, acuminate, densely clothed in stellate hairs, more or less erect at fruiting, petals yellow to orange or scarlet, often with darker veins, 30-60 mm long. Cells c. 10 per fruit, covered in stellate hairs, and with longer stellate hairs along the ridged back; dorsal apical angle awnless. Seeds brown, hairy, partivulary on the back c. 3mm diameter (Webb et al 1988)

Similar Taxa

This species can de distinguished from other Abutillon by the lobed leaves.

Flowering

January, February, March, April

Flower Colours

Orange,Yellow

Year Naturalised

1981

Origin

Cultivated hybrid

This page last updated on 11 Jun 2010