All plants /Shrub /Turk's Cap
Turk's Cap
Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii, mallow family. Common in Central and East Texas.
At a glance
- What
- Red flowers, marble-sized red fruit, young leaves
- How
- Flowers and fruit raw or as tea; fruit cooks into syrup
- When
- May through November, one of the longest seasons going
- Where
- Shady understory, yards, creek banks
- Value
- Nectar sugars; gentle hibiscus-family tea
Caution: No meaningful look-alike when flowering: nothing else here makes that never-opening red turban of a bloom. Fruit is mild and a little mealy, better cooked than grazed.
Identification
A shade-loving mallow with soft maple-ish leaves and red flowers that stay furled like a wrapped turban, hummingbird-designed.
Uses
Flowers steep into a pale hibiscus-style tea. The little red fruits taste faintly of apple and do their best work as syrup or jelly.
Photo: Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Forages well with
Forage safely. Never eat a wild plant on this site's word alone. Confirm identity with several sources, learn the look-alikes, and when in doubt, leave it in the ground.