Species
+

Malvaviscus arboreus Cav.

Turk's cap, Turk's-cap, Wax Mallow, alalatz

Climate known 43 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Malvaviscus arboreus is a species of flowering plant in the hibiscus family, Malvaceae, that is native to the American South, Mexico, Central America, and South America. The specific name, arboreus, refers to the tree-like appearance of a mature plant. It is now popular in cultivation and goes by many English names including wax mallow, Turk's cap (mallow), Turk's turban, sleeping hibiscus, manzanilla, manzanita, ladies teardrop and Scotchman's purse; many of these common names refer to other, in some cases unrelated, plants. Its flowers do not open fully and help attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

Text from Wikipedia, “Malvaviscus arboreus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Malvaviscus

Malvaviscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. Common names for species in this genus include Turk's cap mallow, wax mallow, sleeping hibiscus, and mazapan. It belongs to a group of genera that differ from the closely related Hibiscus in possessing a fruit divided into 5 separate parts, and having a style surmounted by 10, rather than 5, capitate or capitellate stigmas. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Malvaviscus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
Cav.
Native to
Texas, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +15
Wild records
1635 in range· 585 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Aug, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1178mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 164 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to November in the northern hemisphere (May to November at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1178 mm a year, wettest September at 164 mm, driest January at 52 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 9.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Hibiscus jerroldii Medv.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to November in the northern hemisphere (May to November at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (897 mm of 1178 mm) falls in May to November, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.6 °C against a yearly mean of 21.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to May.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1178 mm a year, wettest September at 164 mm, driest January at 52 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1178 mm a year at the habitat, 897 mm of it May to November. Wettest month September at 164 mm, driest January at 52 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 826 mm to 2384 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 9.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 9.0 °C, the absolute minimum 5.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 22.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.1 °C to 20.7 °C), warmest day 31.8 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 20 °C in Jan to 32 °C in Aug; mean night from 11 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1178 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 934 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 5.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 22.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°22.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)5.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 22–40RH 58–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 934 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C20 / 16–2822 / 17–3024 / 21–3127 / 24–3329 / 26–3331 / 24–3332 / 23–3432 / 24–3530 / 23–3227 / 23–2923 / 20–2821 / 16–28
Night °C11 / 5–2112 / 7–2114 / 10–2216 / 13–2320 / 16–2523 / 16–2524 / 15–2524 / 16–2522 / 16–2418 / 14–2314 / 10–2211 / 6–21
Rain mm52 / 12–10452 / 10–8756 / 10–9261 / 21–91110 / 63–215159 / 103–357125 / 57–354129 / 51–367164 / 76–406134 / 90–30576 / 32–15460 / 13–120
DLI22 / 18–3427 / 22–3833 / 29–4237 / 35–4438 / 36–4339 / 32–4140 / 33–4338 / 33–4133 / 29–3428 / 26–3224 / 20–3222 / 17–31
RH %59 / 56–6659 / 55–6558 / 55–6358 / 55–6461 / 58–6663 / 58–6963 / 56–6963 / 55–6964 / 56–7162 / 57–6959 / 57–6859 / 57–67

Each figure is the median across the 934 grid cells holding the 1580 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1698:2090 (5.075, -75.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 22.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 934 distinct grid cells holding the 1580 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1698:2090 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 5.00_-75.625, lapse-corrected +103 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2241 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTexas, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru· introduced: Tunisia, Cameroon, Zaïre, Chad, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Thailand, Vietnam, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Society Is., Tubuai Is., Hawaii, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is.
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker30.313, -97.722 · in the densest population, 584 records (36% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1635 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 585 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1262 km away. 104 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 55 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1635 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Malvaviscus arboreusMalvaviscus arboreusMalvaviscus arboreusMalvaviscus arboreusMalvaviscus arboreusMalvaviscus arboreusMalvaviscus arboreusMalvaviscus arboreus

Photographs: (c) alessandradalia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) dhasdf, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Malvaviscus arboreus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Metabolomics analysis and biological investigation of three Malvaceae plants
Omnia Hesham Abdelhafez, Eman M. Othman, John Refaat Fahim, Samar Yehia Desoukey (2019) · Phytochemical Analysis
Hepatoprotective potential of Malvaviscus arboreus against carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury in rats
Omnia Hesham Abdelhafez, Michael Atef Fawzy, John Refaat Fahim, Samar Yehia Desoukey (2018) · PLoS ONE
Antioxidant, antihypertensive, anti-hyperglycemic, and antimicrobial activity of aqueous extracts from twelve native plants of the Yucatan coast
Cecilia Mónica Rodríguez-García, Jorge Carlos Ruíz-Ruíz, Leticia Peraza-Echeverrı́a, Sergio R. Peraza‐Sánchez (2019) · PLoS ONE
The significance of prey in the diet of the phytophagous thrips, Frankliniella schultzei
Michael R. Milne, G. H. Walter (1997) · Ecological Entomology
Gastroprotective activity of kaempferol glycosides from Malvaviscus arboreus Cav.
Yrvinn Campos-Vidal, Maribel Herrera‐Ruíz, Gabriela Trejo‐Tapia, Manasés González‐Cortazar (2020) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Thrips see red – flower colour and the host relationships of a polyphagous anthophilic thrips
Aleander Yaku, Gimme H. Walter, Adriana Najar‐Rodriguez (2007) · Ecological Entomology
The importance of non‐pollen plant parts as food sources for the common blossom thrips, Frankliniella schultzei
J. R. Milne, Gimme H. Walter, D. Kaonga, Glory Sabio (1996) · Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata
Transmission of Citrus leprosis virus C by Brevipalpus phoenicis (Geijskes) to Alternative Host Plants Found in Citrus Orchards
Maria Andréia Nunes, Carlos Amadeu Leite de Oliveira, M. L. de Oliveira, Elliot Watanabe Kitajima (2011) · Plant Disease

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Malvaviscus 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 99 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.