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Scientific: Abutilon palmeri
Common: Indian mallow, Superstitution mallow, Palmer's abutilon, Palmer's mallow
Family: Malvaceae
Origin: Southwest United States and northern Mexico generally between 2,000 and 3,000 feet in elevation.

Pronounciation: A-BOO-tee-lon PAL-mer-eye

Hardiness zones
Sunset
12-14
USDA 9-11

Landscape Use: Xeric (dry) landscape settings, foliar and textural accent, native landscape garden design themes, wildlife gardens.

Form & Character: Dense, rounded, irregular, clumsy, but soft with a light and festive appearance.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, a mostly herbaceaous perennial shrub to 8-feet tall with a slightly less than equal spread. Growth rate and eventual size varies greatly with water availability.

Foliage/Texture: Leaves are alternate, ovate with dentate (tooth like) leaf margins to 2-inches long, prominent palmate leaf veins, strongly velvet pubescent to tomentose and woolly, glaucous. Young twigs and stems are densely pubescent also; medium texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Axillary flowers, gray green sepals, five yellow-gold colored petals, cup shaped. Fruits are a schizocarp, inconspicuous, pubscent, roundish, capsular, seeds blackened.

Seasonal Color: Flowers during entire warm season.

Temperature: Hardy to 20oF. Tolerant of high desert heat.

Light: Full sun required, no shade.

Soil: Tolerant, so long as well drained.

Watering: Infrequent deep irrigations during the growing season only; use water to control growth rate. High water applications results in rank vegetative growth with fewer flowers. No supplemental is necessary during winter.

Pruning: Severely head back every few years to control spread.

Propagation: Seed, softwood cuttings.

Disease and Pests: None, except for herbivory by rabbits, those urban demons.

Additional comments: This is a lovely, informal accent plant for xeric and native landscape gardens. It is easy to care for and thrives under neglect and limited supplemental water, even during Phoenix summers. Great for attracting bees, butterflies and birds. Its principal problems in Phoenix landscapes are generally derived from too much 'TLC' (i.e., irrigated too much and over pruned).