Thursday 30 June 2016

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 151 - NATIVE LILAC HIBISCUS

Alyogyne huegelii is a flowering plant found in the Southwest botanical province of Western Australia, extending along its entire coastline. A large flowered shrub, the species favours the sands of coastal shrublands and heath. The large flower, highly variable in colour, is similar to that of Hibiscus. It was previously placed in that genus, and is commonly named "Lilac Hibiscus".

It is widely cultivated as a flowering plant for the garden, but the varieties and cultivars previously published are no longer formally recognised. Alyogyne is a shrub to four metres with many alternate branches, although lower ones may be sparse. Bright green leaves are divided in three to five in outline; margins are irregular, lobate to toothed; pubescent and strongly veined lobes are coarse in shape. The flowerstalk at the leaf axil is long, tilting at the single flower.

The flowers have five luminous petals up to 70 mm long, these are overlapping and have slight ridges. The colour is cream or mauve, or the lilac of the name by which it is traded. The staminal tube structure contains numerous whorled anthers, these are yellow. The five styles of this are fused until the tip, which is composed of swollen and apparently divided stigma. This is supported on a five-lobed calyx, within an arrangement of up to 10 partly fused bracts. As with all the Malvales, the flowers last around a day – becoming deeply coloured and papery when spent. They are numerous in the long flowering period in Australia being between June and January.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.





8 comments:

  1. I've never seen one of those before. I like the deep color and the large pinwheel petals.

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  2. I've never seen one of those before. I like the deep color and the large pinwheel petals.

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  3. Wow, that popped up! Never seen such a color of an hibiscus before...

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  4. For sure, a gorgeous tree with superbe purple flowers. Another type of hibiscus, so interesting to observe for the texture of petals; I've never seen before this species of malvaceae ot the color... It is not specific for our zone, I guess. But commonly, it can be found something similar called common hollyhock or Alcea rosea.
    Many thanks for sharing all these flowers with us.

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  5. That's a cheery shrub and flower you've captured. The petals look as if they're going to wind up and take off. Gorgeous color.

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  6. Have you seen this lovely orchid picture? It's been up on www.meadwaymedia.com all this week. What do you think?

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  7. A great serie of photos of the hibiscus. Love them.

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  8. I love hibiscuses - and this is an especially pretty and different looking one! Lovely!

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