Botanical name: Pentapetes phoenicea Family: Malvaceae (Mallow family)
Midday Flower is an erect, half-woody plant, 0.5-1 m in height. The branches are long and spreading. The leaves are alternate, linear, 6-10 cm in length, toothed at the margins, usually having the broad, pointed base, and tapering to a pointed tip. Scarlet flowers are borne in the axils of the leaves with 5 large, deep rose, and show petals. The flowers, 2.5-3.5 cm across, open around noon, and close the following dawn. The fruit is a 5-valved, rounded, hairy capsule, about 1 centimeter in diameter. The seeds, which are not winged, occur 8-12 in two series in each cell. Pentapetes is native to a wide region of tropical South Asia from Ceylon and India to northern Australia and the Philippines. Flowering: August-November.
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The flower labeled Midday Flower is ...