Latin malva—mallow; viscidus—sticky, referring to the sticky sap.
Hairy shrubs. Leaves cordate, generally lobed. Flowers axillary, stalked, red and showy, almost fuchsia-like with petals not spreading. Epicalyx of 7-12 segments. Staminal column projecting from the flower. Fruit of fleshy berry-like carpels eventually drying and separating.
Widely cultivated in the tropics but hardy in Melbourne.
Fruit a fleshy berry-like structure; stigmas twice the number of carpels; fuschsia-like scarlet flowers with the staminal column projecting from the flower.
3 species from tropical America.
Turner & Mendenhall (1993).
Source: (1997). Hibiscus. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
