Plant Name
Scientific Name: Hibiscus coulteri
Common Names: Desert Rosemallow, Coulter's Hibiscus
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial, Deciduous
Growth Habit: Shrub, Subshrub
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert. This wildflower grows in foothill canyons and on rocky slopes.
Flower Color: Pale yellow, Cream
Flowering Season: Spring, Summer, Fall (early). It blooms sporadically throughout much of the year, but it blooms most heavily in the spring and then again in the late summer after the summer monsoon rains.
Height: To 4 feet (1.2 m) tall
Description: The flowers are up to 2 inches (5 cm) wide and have 5 fan-shaped petals that are either solid-colored or streaked with red at the base and a ring of green, linear bracts. The leaves are green, hairy, alternate, and 3-lobed. The leaf margins have only a few smaller lobes or a few large, rounded teeth. The stems are slender, upright, and covered with flattened hairs. The plants are often sparse, lanky, and difficult to spot unless blooming.
The similar, but less common Arizona Rosemallow (Hibiscus biseptus) has leaves with heavily toothed margins and palmately 3-5-lobed leaves.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Dilleniidae
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae – Mallow family
Genus: Hibiscus L. – rosemallow
Species: Hibiscus coulteri Harv. ex A. Gray – desert rosemallow
More About This Plant