Cotton rose or Sthal Padma in Indian languages is also known as the Confederate rose, Changeable Rose, Chinese Rose or the cotton rose mallow. In Hindi it is called Sthalkamal. It is called Sthalpadma in Bengali, Semburutti in Tamil, Neladavare in Kannada, Chinappratti in Malayalam, and Gul-e-ajaib in Urdu. In Oriya we call it Sthalapadma too. Its botanical name is Hibiscus mutabilis.
These flowers are seen during autumn. These are 4 to 6 inches in diameter depends on its variety of single or double. Mostly, these flowers are white in the morning but turn pink then to deep pink afterward. Funnily enough, the species name mutabilis means, changeable. Cotton Rose is a large shrub which grows to 15 ft high with about a 10 ft spread. It sheds its leaves in winter soon after flowering, a round, hairy capsule forms which dries and releases seeds. The flower really looks like lotus on the land as its name signifies. But in English it is called Cotton rose and the leaves, structure, stem and seed of the plant are quite like cotton plant.
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