PLANT: Subshrubs, shrubs, or trees (rarely herbs), variously pubescent or hispid to glabrescent. LEAVES: ovate to elliptic, sometimes lobed or parted, dentate or less often entire; abaxial foliar nectaries present or absent. FLOWERS: usually solitary in the leafaxils, sometimes aggregated apically; bracts of involucel 8-10(-20); calyx 5-lobed; corolla of various colors, sometimes with a dark center; staminal column apically 5-dentate; styles 5, with capitate stigmas. FRUITS: capsular, ovoid or oblong, glabrous or pubescent. SEEDS: hirsute or glabrescent (in ours silky-pubescent), several per locule. NOTES: Ca. 200 spp. from all warmer parts of the world and in some temperate areas. (Greek hibiscos, mallow, derived from Ibis, an Egyptian deity). Fryxell, P. A. 1980. Techn. Bull. U.S.D.A. 1624. pp.1-53. REFERENCES: Fryxell, Paul A. 1994. Malvaceae. J. Ariz. – Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 27(2), 222-236.