MEXICAN APPLE
Mexican Apple. Turk’s Cap (Malvaviscus drummondii) is also called red mallow. The showy red flowers somewhat resemble a Turkish fez. The broad petals remain closely wrapped around one another at the base but spreading above; the stamen column is conspicuously prolonged beyond the petals. The red apple-like fruits are nearly an inch broad and half as high. They have a delicious flavor and may be eaten raw or cooked. The fruits ripen in the late summer and fall, a few weeks after the blooms appear. They begin to dry soon after ripening and split into sections, scattering the seeds which are borne in the center.
The plants are perennial, the leafy stems branching and spreading, forming a clump which is commonly 2-3 feet high. Growing abundantly in shade along streams in the central and southern parts of the state and in moist woods in East Texas, it ranges from Florida to Mexico. It is a desirable plant for cultivation and is hardier but not as showy, as the large-flowered Turk’s cap (Malvaviscus grandiflora), a Mexican plant now widely cultivated for ornamental purposes in South Texas.
WILD HOLLYHOCK WINE CUP
Wild Hollyhock. Wine Cup. Fringed Poppy-Mallow (Callirrhoë digitata) grows in dry soil from Illinois and Kansas to Texas, blooming in Texas in April and May. It is a perennial, 1-1½ ft. high, with smooth, erect, gray-green stems topped by the flower cluster. The cup-shaped flowers are on slender stalks, the lower longer than the upper. The upper leaves are divided into 1-3 linear divisions and the lower into 5-7 divisions. The petals vary in color from cherry-red to pink and white, often being quite fringed across the top. The slightly yellow stamens are borne in a dense oblong column from which the 10 red styles appear after the flower has been opened several days.
Wine Cup. Red Poppy-Mallow (Callirrhoë involucrata) is the common poppy-mallow throughout the state and ranges from Minnesota to Mexico, a solitary flower standing erect from a prostrate branch. The five-pointed leaves are more or less divided or lobed, sometimes with very linear divisions. Covering acres and acres of the southern coastal prairie in March and April, and more or less common on the drier prairies, this wine cup is a favorite flower. White and pink forms of it exist, but the wine-red color is predominant.
ROCK ROSE. PAVONIA
Rock Rose. Pavonia. Pink Mallow (Pavonia lasiopetala) has attractive, deep-pink flowers, which are broadly spreading, about 1½ in. wide. The plant is branching and shrubby, commonly growing about 2 ft. high, with ovate or rounded leaves 1-2½ in. long. It is not extremely showy but makes an excellent low shrub for the garden and will produce an abundance of blossoms from late spring until fall. It is found in dry, rocky woods from Central Texas to Mexico.