Malvaviscus arboreus (Turk's Cap)

Native from Texas and Mexico through Central America to parts of northern South America and Trinidad, this plant is a shrub or small tree. Its flowers occur singly in the leaf axils. Overlapping petals stay wrapped around a projecting floral column rather than opening flat. The upright or slightly drooping flowers are about one and a quarter inches long, shorter than those of Malvaviscus penduliflorus. The sweet fruits are edible; research in Costa Rica recorded them changing from white through orange to deep red as they ripened. Photographed in the eastern Andes mountain range of Colombia.