Dombeya spectabilis

Dombeya is a small tree with large maple-shaped leaves and dense heads of little pinkish white flowers. It differs from the Dombeya Wallichii in many respects. Firstly its flowers are lighter in color, not as pink as the Pink Ball. Secondly the stalks from which the flower bunches hang are much shorter than those in Pink Ball. Thirdly, and the most importantly, the leaves a very much lobed like a maple like, whereas in the Pink Ball, the leaves toothed and nicely heart-shaped. Leaves broadly circular, 2-7 cm long and broad, subscabrous on both sides, shallowly 3-lobed, serrate, nerves beneath rusty pubescent; petiole 2-5 cm long, downy. Inflorescence an axillary, elongated cyme; peduncle 3-7 cm long, downy. Flowers pinkish, 2-2.5 cm across; stalk 1.5-2 cm long, downy. Sepals linear-lanceolate, c. 1 cm long, c. 2-3 mm broad, pubescent outside. petals oblique-obovate, c. 1.5 cm long and broad, retuse. Carpels 5; ovary globose, villose. Capsule globose, pentagonal, c. 5 mm in diameter, villous. The plant is native to Madagascar, but widely grown as a large roadside shrub in Delhi. The name is in honor of Joseph Dombay, a French medical man and botanist who made extensive plant collections in Peru and Chile. Flowering: November-January.