Gossypium harknessii
San Marcos Hibiscus
Family: Malvaceae
Evergreen mounded shrub growing about 4’ tall x6’ wide. May drop leaves at about 25°F. Yellow hibiscus-like flowers with red dots at the base of each petal occurs in warm weather.
Grow in full sun, with low water, root hardy to at least 20° F.
The flowers are important for native bees, and are used by numerous pollinators. Larval food plant for painted lady (Vanessa cardui) and gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus), and also the royal moth (Citheronia splendens sinaloensis).
Though in the cotton genus, this plant produces no fiber.
The generic name Gossypium is derived from the Greek name for cotton, gossypion. The species harknessii is for Harvey Wilson Harkness, 1821-1902, physician and naturalist, President California Academy of Sciences 1887-1896
Native in the southern part of the Sonoran Desert, in Baja California.