Flower-of-an-hour
Scientific Name: Hibiscus trionum L.
Other Names: ketmie, trilobée, fleur d’une heure, ketmie enflée
Family: Mallow Family (Malvaceae)
General Description: Annual, reproducing only by seed.
Habitat: Occurs only in the south-western part of southern Ontario where it is a frequent weed in row crops, open fields and waste places.
Seedlings
- Seedling with stem
- Leaves opposites (2 per node)
- Cotyledons are orbicular
- First true leaves are rounded with wavy margins
Stems
- At first erect but soon much-branched and spreading
- 30- 50 cm (12- 20 in.) high
- Rough-hairy
Leaves
- Alternate (1 per node)
- Stalks about as long as the blades
- Blades are deeply 3-parted with each division coarsely lobed
Flowers
- 2- 4 cm (¾- 1 ½ in.) in diameter
- Ring of several linear bracts below the calyx
- Calyx of 5 papery-thin united sepals
- Coarsely hairy on the prominent, purplish, lengthwise veins
- Petals are yellowish with dark purplish-brown centre
- Filaments are united in to a central column
- Flowers from July to late autumn
Often Confused With
Velvetleaf Seedlings (Flower-of-an-hour is distinguished by its deeply 3-parted lobed leaves, velvetleaf’s are heart-shaped)