Shrubs ca. 1 m tall. Branchlets sparsely villous to glabrate, rarely glabrous. Stipule filiform, ca. 4 mm, usually caducous; petiole 2-5 cm, puberulent; leaf blade broadly cordate to ovate-cordate, usually 3-lobed, sometimes entire, 6-12 × 2.5-10 cm, nearly glabrous or stellate pilose on both surfaces, basal veins 3 or 5, base broadly cuneate to nearly rounded or cordate, margin crenate, sometimes irregularly so, apex acuminate. Flowers solitary, axillary, pendulous, tube-shaped, slightly expanding only at top, 2.3-5 cm. Pedicel 3-15 mm, villous or puberulent. Epicalyx lobes spatulate, 8-15 mm, connate at base, hairy. Calyx campanulate, ca. 1 cm in diam., lobes 5, slightly longer or shorter than bracteoles, hirsute. Petals 5, scarlet-red, 2.5-5 cm. Staminal column 5-7 cm, exceeding corolla tube. Style branches 10. Ripe fruit bright red, usually 3- or 4-seeded.

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Plants 0.5–3[–10] m. Leaf blades elliptic to broadly ovate, 4–20[–25] × 3–12 cm, surfaces sparsely to densely hairy with simple and stellate trichomes. Involucellar bractlets linear-spatulate. Flowers ascending or erect; calyx persistent, lobes connate for 1/2–2/3 their lengths, 8–15 mm, glabrous or hirsute; petals imbricate at anthesis, asymmetrically obovate-cuneate and auriculate toward base, 1.5–4(–5) cm; staminal column with 5 apical teeth; stigmas exserted. Fruits berrylike, usually red, not winged, 8–13[–16] × 10–17 mm, fleshy, edible; mericarps broadly ellipsoid wedge-shaped, smooth, glabrous. Seeds reniform, 3/4 as wide as long. 2n = 56.

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Malvaviscus arboreus Cav., Diss. 3: 131, t. 48, f. 1. 1787; Hibiscus malvaviscus L.; M. acapulcensis Kunth; M. arboreus var. mexicanus Schltdl.; M. grandiflorus Kunth; M. pentacarpus DC.; M. arboreus var. sepium (Schltdl.) Schery; M. lanceolatus Rose.

Arbustos, 3 m de alto; tallos densamente pubescentes a glabrescentes. Hojas elípticas u ovadas, agudas o acuminadas en el ápice, truncadas o cordadas en la base, densa y suavemente tomentosas especialmente en el envés a glabrescentes. Flores solitarias en las axilas o agrupadas apicalmente, pedicelos 1–3 cm de largo; bractéolas del calículo 8–9, lanceoladas, subiguales al cáliz o algo más cortas; cáliz 7–15 mm de largo, puberulento a glabrescente, amarillento; pétalos 2–5 cm de largo; androceo 4–6 cm de largo, glabro, anteras 10–25, moradas, filamentos 1–3 mm de largo. Frutos 1 cm de diámetro, carpidios 6–9 mm de largo.

Común, sotobosques, zonas norcentral y pacífica; 0–2000 m; fl y fr más o menos durante todo el año; Moreno 16746, Stevens 17312; México al norte de Sudamérica. "Quesillo".

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Shrub or small tree up to 10 m but usually not more than 4 m high, some- times clambering over other vegetation, very variable in indumentum, in shape of leaves and in size of flower parts, the branchlets velvety-pubescent to glabrescent. Leaves short- to usually long-petiolate, the petiole to 18 cm long; blade lanceolate to broadly ovate, or oblong-ovate, or slightly obovate, or slightly depressed ovate, entire to shallowly lobed, rounded, truncate or cordate at the base, commonly more or less acuminate at the apex, sinuate or crenulate to rather coarsely serrate to den- tate at the margin, up to 21 cm long and 16 cm broad, thin, 5- to 7(-9)-pal- minerved, often scabridulous and usually with spreading, stellate hairs on both sur- faces, the venation reticulate and slightly prominent on both sides. Flowers with the pedicel 1-6 cm long, glabrous to tomentellous; epicalyx equalling more or less the calyx, 11-20 mm long, the bractlets linear, narrowly lanceolate or sometimes more or less narrowly spatulate, glabrous to tomentellous; calyx 10-18 mm long, usually more or less deeply lobed, glabrous to tomentellous; petals obovate or sometimes narrowly obovate, emarginate or infrequently deeply lobed at the apex, 23-55 mm long and (7-)12-25 mm broad, deep pink to bright red; staminal tube 3-6 cm long. Fruit depressed-obovoid, ca 6-10 mm high and 8-13 mm in diam.

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Arbusto, 1.5 – 2.5 m; tallos y pecíolos suavemente pubescentes con tricomas principalmente 1 mm (pero ocasionalmente hasta ca. 2 mm). Hojas 4 –18 X 3.5 –16 cm, elípticas a ampliamente ovadas, cuneadas a re- dondeadas o ligeramente cordadas en la base, agudas o acuminadas en el ápice, a menudo algo lobuladas, de otra forma crenadas, cortamente estrellado-pubescentes en el haz, la pubescencia fácilmente tangible. Infls. con los pedicelos 5 – 30 mm. Fls. con las brácteas caliculares erectas, subiguales al cáliz, 1– 2.5 mm de ancho, lan- ceoladas a liguladas, estrellado-pubescentes e hirsutas (esp. en el margen); cáliz 10 –15 mm, puberulento con tricomas descoloridos; pétalos 25 – 35(– 40) mm; columna estaminal 40 – 60 mm, exerta; anteras centrales 1– 1.3 mm; estilos que ligeramente exceden el androceo. Frs. rojos, ca. 1 cm de diám.

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Shrub tree

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Southernmost United States and West Indies to Peru and Brazil; sea coast to elevations of 2000 m, in various habitats; often cultivated as an ornamental; known in Panama as mapola and papito de monte.

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