Commonly known as the Red or Scarlet Pavonia.
It is a rare plant in Eastern Australia and mainly seen in Botanic Gardens.
They are a 2.5 m high shrub with stellate hairs on the stems.
Alternately arranged leaves are on a petiole up to 8 cm long.
At the petiole base are 5 mm long narrow triangular stipules.
The ovate blades are sometimes slightly or deeply 3-lobed with palmate veins.
Up to 10 cm long and 7 cm wide they have a heart-shaped base and pointed tip.
The blade edges have sharp or blunt teeth.
There are dense stellate hairs and glands on the paler lower surface.
Inflorescences are solitary axillary flowers on stalks up to 7 cm long.
Flowers are clustered near the branch ends.
The epicalyx or involucre has 6 bright scarlet or red bracts around 1 cm long.
The five deep purplish sepals, up to 1.5 cm long have 3 ribs.
The 5 deep red to deep purple petals, fused at the base are 4 to 5 cm long.
Epicalyx, calyx and petals have glandular hairs on the outer surfaces.
The base of the stamen filaments are fused into a dark red or purplish staminal column.
It has 5 narrow lobes on the rim and extends slightly past the petals.
Anthers, on short free filaments are attached to the upper half.
Emerging from the top the column the 10 styles separate.
The plant illustrated below is tagged as P. coccinea ‘Shooting Star’.
It differs by having long elliptic leaves that are not lobed and have a smooth edge.
It has twice the number of epicalyx bracts which is what it would have been bred for.
J.F.
