午时花 wu shi hua

Annual herbs, 0.5-1 m tall, sparsely stellate hairy. Petiole 1-2.5 cm; leaf blade linear-lanceolate, 5-10 × 1-2 cm, base broadly cuneate, rounded or truncate, margin crenate, apex acuminate. Flowers opening at noon, closing at dawn. Calyx lobes lanceolate, ca. 1 cm, abaxially stellate velutinous and hispid. Petals red, broadly ovate, ca. 12 mm. Staminodes tongue-shaped, 12-13 × ca. 1 mm. Ovary ovoid, villous; ovules 8-12 per cell; style filiform, glabrous, ca. 1 cm. Capsule nearly globose, ca. 1.2 cm in diam., densely stellate hairy and hispid, shorter than persistent calyx. Fl. summer-autumn.

Cultivated, requires moist conditions. Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, S Yunnan [Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; N Australia; naturalized in Central America].

Pentapetes phoenicea is a plant of tropical Asia that is cultivated for its bright red flowers. It has become naturalized in many areas such that the native distribution is now obscured.