This section is from the book "An Illustrated Flora Of The Northern United States, Canada And The British Possessions Vol2", by Nathaniel Lord Britton, Addison Brown. Also available from Amazon: An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 Volume Set..
Perennial, scabrous or pubescent herbs or shrubs, with hastate or angular leaves, and showy, axillary or paniculate flowers. Bractlets of the involucels several, linear. Calyx 5-toothed or 5-cleft. Stamen-column entire, or 5-toothed at the summit, anther-bearing below for nearly its entire length. Ovary 5-celled, the cells I-ovuled; style-branches of the same number, stigmatic at the capitate summits. Capsule depressed, 5-angled. Seeds reni-form, ascending. [Named in honor of V. F, Kosteletzky, a botanist of Bohemia.]
About 8 species, natives of warm and temperate America. In addition to the following, another occurs in the southwestern United States. Type species: Kosteletzkya hastàta Presl.
Fig. 2868
Hibiscus virginicus L. Sp. Pl. 697. 1753.
K. virginica A. Gray, Gen. 2: 80. t. 132. 1849.
K. virginica var. althaeifolia Chapm. Fl. S. States 57. 1860. K. althaeifolia A. Gray; S. Wats. Bibl. Index 136.
1878.
Perennial, erect, branching, 2°-4° high, more or less stellate-pubescent and scabrous. Leaves ovate, or hastate, truncate or cordate at the base, 2'-5' long, unequally dentate and often 3-lobed below, sometimes with an additional lobe or two at the middle, acute, velvety or pubescent; flowers pink, \Y-2Y broad, in loose terminal leafy panicles; bractlets of the involucels 8-9, linear, shorter than the lanceolate acute calyx-segments; capsule hispid-pubescent.
In salt or brackish marshes, southeastern New York to Florida and Louisiana. Bermuda; Cuba. Aug.
 
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