Reader names flower and wins birdhouse

This plant, which grew from a seed dropped by a bird, is about two feet tall. It started with a big pod then opened to this beautiful flower with five huge petals and bloomed for seven days. Sent in by Jeannine Craig

Congratulations to Leila Grace Cooper of Hopkins for correctly naming this plant, a hibiscus coccineus or commonly called a scarlet hibiscus or scarlet rose mallow. It is a shrubby herbaceous perennial that dies in the winter and resprouts in the spring. Established plants can have one to several stems up to 7' tall. The five petaled flowers are crimson red and 6-8"across. Each lasts only a day but new ones continue to open all summer and fall. The leaves are divided palmately into three to seven narrow, pointed serrated lobes. The plant is usually found in swamps, marshes, and ditches from southern Georgia and Alabama to central Florida.

www.floridata.com