Thespesia
(from thespesios, divine; T. populnea is frequently planted about churches in the tropics). ORD. Malvaceae. A small genus (about half-a-dozen species) of stove trees or tall herbs, found in tropical Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Madagascar. Flowers often yellow, showy; calyx not conspicuously dotted, truncate, rarely five-cleft; ovary five-celled. Leaves entire or angular-lobed. Two species have been introduced; both are trees. They thrive in a compost of loam and peat. Ripened cuttings will root freely in sand or mould, under a hand glass, in heat.
T. grandiflora (large-flowered). fl. red, 4in. to 5in. in diameter, on pedicels 4in. long. May. l. ovate, rather cordate, slightly acuminate. h. 30ft. Porto Rico, 1827. In habit, this species resembles T. populnea. T. populnea (Poplar-like). Mahoe; Portia-nut Oil-plant; Umbrella-tree. fl. at first yellow, with a purple central spot, but changing altogether to purple before they die off in the evening; pedicels 1 1/2in. to 2in. long; peduncles equalling the petioles. June. l. roundish-cordate, acuminate, five to seven-nerved, covered beneath with dot-like scales. h. 40ft. Tropics of Old World, 1770.
T. p. guadalupensis (Guadaloupe). fl., petals narrower than in the type, fringed at base; pedicels 1in. long. Cultivated in Guadaloupe.