Abutilon darwinii Hook.f.
Chinese lantern
Perennial shrub to c. 3 m high, sometimes suckering to form thickets. Stems sparsely hairy with short stellate hairs and scattered short simple hairs, becoming ± glabrous. Lvs densely clothed in fine stellate hairs below, ± glabrous to moderately hairy with simple and stellate hairs above, lighter green below, broadly ovate to suborbicular, cordate at base, usually 3-(5)-lobed to 1/4-1/2 radius, crenate or serrate, 6-15-(18) cm long; petioles 2-20 cm long; stipules narrow-oblong to lanceolate, 6-12 mm long, deciduous. Fls axillary, usually solitary or sometimes 2-3 in fascicles; fruiting pedicels up to 20 cm long; calyx shallowly campanulate; calyx teeth much > tube, triangular, acuminate, densely clothed in stellate hairs, ± erect at fruiting; petals yellow to orange or scarlet, often with darker veins, 30-60 mm long. Cells c. 10 per fr., covered in stellate hairs, and with longer stellate hairs along the ridged back; dorsal apical angle awnless. Seeds brown, hairy, particularly on back, c. 3 mm diam.
N.: Northcote (Auckland City), scattered localities in Bay of Plenty, and doubtfully naturalised in Hunua Range (N. Auckland); S.: Atiawhai Drive Reserve (Nelson).
Cultivated hybrid 1981
Waste places, riverbanks, forest margins.
Chinese lantern is widely cultivated in N.Z. with numerous cvs developed here and overseas; these vary mainly in fl. colour and petal venation and are usually cultivated under the name A. × hybridum.
