Corynabutilon Species, Chilian Tree Mallow, Flowering Maple

SoftAnnie: what you saw in the hospital may well have been the related Australian plant Alyogyne huegelii, perhaps the variety 'Santa Cru...Read Morez'. I say this because the flowers resemble those of Abutilon vitifolium, but it is a much larger and more reliably woody shrub, one more likely to have reached the second story! Take a look at the various Alyogynes here on DG, and see if they might not be the plants in question!

I've been looking for the name of this tree for so many years. One was flowering outside my hospital room over 42 years ago when my daug...Read Morehter was born in May. When I went back after several years to find the name of the tree it had been chopped down in an expansion effort and nobody was around who could tell me the name. I remember looking from my room's window and thinking, "I'll save the memory of this day and that beautiful tree so I can tell her later about the day she was born." The Tree was taller than my second story window and I watched the lavender-blue blossoms drift down in a soft spring shower, hoping her life would be as beautiful as that morning.

Abutilon vitifolium “Veronica Tennant”. Abutilons are a large family of plants of over 150 species ranging from the almost frost ha...Read Morerdy to the sub-tropical. A. vitifolium is a vigorous shrub growing to about 12 feet. It is listed as European Zone 8 for hardiness and, like A. x suntense, it grows in my garden under the protective canopy of a mature Sycamore tree. Only in the severest Winters have I lost it (or its relative A. x suntense). Flowers of Veronica Tennant are are lavender and profuse. The leaves are dark green, coarsely toothed and felted (covered in velvety hairs).