Abutilon pictum Edible which is part of why

which is part of why grandiflorum has persisted along Coastal Plain roadsides where the native communities have largely disappeared

so a hard late-winter cut keeps the shrub compact and fruitful

and gardeners who know her keep reaching for the same comparison: the Juniper Level Botanic Garden likens the plant to a flowering cherry far more than a camellia

The spurred flowers are a small marvel of design

summer after summer

Abutilon pictum Edible which is part of whyTwo things the common names get wrong: it is not Chinese, and it is not a maple. Abutilon pictum comes from the warm river country of southern Brazil and its neighbors, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and the maple lives only in the leaves, which are lobed and toothed enough to have fooled people into "flowering maple." It belongs instead to the mallow family, in good company with hibiscus, hollyhock, okra, and cotton, and it carries that