''Thespesia grandiflora'' is a tree in the family

Malvaceae Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, cotton, cacao and durian. There are also some genera containing familia ...

of the

rosids The rosids are members of a large clade (monophyletic group) of flowering plants, containing about 70,000 species, more than a quarter of all angiosperms. The clade is divided into 16 to 20 orders, depending upon circumscription and classificati ...

clade. Its common name is maga. This tree is widely distributed throughout

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

where it is endemic.''Thespesia grandiflora DC. (maga).''
USDA. Natural Resources Conservation Service. Retrieved 5 September 2013.''La Reforestacion Gubernamental en Puerto Rico.'']

Frank H. Wadsworth Frank Howard Wadsworth (November 26, 1915 – January 5, 2022) was an American forester, conservationist and researcher. He made important scientific contributions to forestry, through his work in Puerto Rico where he lived from 1942. Life an ...

. Instituto Internacional de Dasonomía Tropical. U.S. Forest Service. Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. Page 105. Retrieved 9 September 2013. Although originally

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to the humid mountains of limestone in the western and north-central portions of the Island, today it grows everywhere in Puerto Rico due to its extensive cultivation.''Thespesia grandiflora (DC.) Urban.''
John K. Francis. USDA. Forest Service. Retrieved 5 September 2013. It is also grown as an ornamental tree in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

and in various

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...

islands. The maga is mostly used as an ornamental plant, but like the related

Thespesia populnea ''Thespesia populnea'', commonly known as the portia tree (), Pacific rosewood, Indian tulip tree, or milo, among other names, is a species of flowering plant belonging to the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is a tree found commonly on coasts ar ...

its wood is also valued for its durable timber. The flower was declared the national symbol of Puerto Rico on August 7, 2019.

Flower

The flower of the tree, known as Flor de Maga, is the official

national flower In a number of countries, plants have been chosen as symbols to represent specific geographic areas. Some countries have a country-wide floral emblem; others in addition have symbols representing subdivisions. Different processes have been used to ...

. It is sometimes called a

hibiscus ''Hibiscus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. The genus is quite large, comprising several hundred species that are native to warm temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. Member species ...

in English, although it belongs to a different genus and species from the true hibiscus, and is more closely related to

Cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

Growth

The maga tree usually grows no larger than 20 meters. It is grown for

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

and as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...

References

Bibliography

* Bailey, L.H. 1941. The standard cyclopedia of horticulture. New York: Macmillan. 3,639 p. * Calvesbert, Robert, Jr. 1970. Climate of Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. Climatology of the United States 60-52. Silver Spring, MD: U.S. Department of Commerce, Environmental Science Service Administration, Environmental Data Service. 29 p. * Holdridge, L.R. 1942. Trees of Puerto Rico. Occasional Paper 1. Río Piedras, PR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Tropical Forest Experiment Station. 105 p. Vol. 1. * Holdridge, L.R. 1967. Life zone ecology. San José, Costa Rica: Tropical Science Center. 206 p. * Joland, S.D.; Wiedhopt, R.M.; Cole, J.R. 1975. Tumor inhibitory agent from Montezuma speciosissima (Malvaceae). Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 64(11): 1889-1890. * Liogier, Henri A.; Martorell, Luis F. 1982. Flora of Puerto Rico and adjacent islands: a systematic synopsis. Río Piedras, PR: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. 342 p. * Little, Elbert L., Jr.; Wadsworth, Frank H. 1964. Common trees of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Agric. Handb. 249. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture. 548 p. * Marrero, José. 1942. A seed storage study of maga. Caribbean Forester. 3(4): 173-184. * Marrero, José. 1947. A survey of the forest plantations in the Caribbean National Forest. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan. 167 p. Tesis de M.S. * Marrero, José. 1948. Forest planting in the Caribbean National Forest: past experience as a guide for the future. Caribbean Forester. 1: 85-213. * Martorell, Luis F. 1975. Annotated food plant catalog of the insects of Puerto Rico. Río Piedras, PR: Agricultural Experiment Station. 303 p. * Neal, Marie C. 1965. In gardens of Hawaii. Special Publication 50. Honolulú: Bernice P. Bishop Press. 924 p. * Sapath, D.S.; Balaram, P. 1986. Resolution of racemic gossypol and interaction of individual enantiomers with serum albumins and model peptides. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. 882(2): 183-186. * Schubert, Thomas H. 1979. Trees for urban use in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Gen. Tech. Rep. SO-27. New Orleans, LA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Forest Experiment Station. 91 p. * Weaver, Peter L. 1987. Tree growth in several tropical forests of Puerto Rico. Res. Pap. SO-152. New Orleans, LA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Forest Experiment Station. 15 p. * Wolcott, George N. 1939. The entomologist looks at maga. Caribbean Forester. 1(1): 29-30. * Wolcott, George N. 1940. A list of woods arranged according to their resistance to the attack of the “polilla”, the dry-wood termite of the West Indies. Caribbean Forester. 1(4): 1-10.

External links

Flor de maga at elboricua.com
{{Taxonbar, from=Q17111020 grandiflora Endemic flora of Puerto Rico Flora without expected TNC conservation status