Dombeya cymosa Harv.

Small tree or shrub, about 3 m tall, sometimes up to 8 m tall, occasionally a straggling bush about 1.3 m tall. Branchlets slender, woody, glabrous, or new growth with short, massed, stellate hairs, faintly longitudinally ridged, leaf-scars fairly prominent, lenticels small, raised, more or less circular. Stipules early deciduous, linear-subulate, 2-7 mm long, densely stellate-pubescent to glabrescent, thick to subpetaloid in texture. Leaves rather thin in texture, ovate, gradually narrowing in the upper third and then abruptly acuminate towards the apex, rounded or shallowly cordate at the base, not very large, usually under 70 mm long and 60 mm broad, crenate on the margin, sparsely and coarsely stellate-pubescent on both surfaces, glabrescent; hairs short; petioles on flowering branches up to 35 mm, sparsely to densely stellate-pubescent. Inflorescence cymose-corymbose to subumbellate, 3-12-flowered, axillary in the upper leaves of the main branches and the many short lateral branchlets; peduncles slender, 1-3 cm long, coarsely stellate-tomentose; pedicels varying from 2 to 7 mm long, coarsely stellate-tomentose with hairs short and appressed. Bracts 3, scattered on the pedicels, often distant from the calyx and from each other or 2 about midway, subopposite, early caducous, linear-subulate, densely stellate-pubescent, 1-2 mm long. Calyx lobed almost to the subrounded base, united for about 1 mm, stellate-pubescent without, sometimes glabrescent; lobes 4-5 mm long, 1.5-2 mm broad, usually reflexed in mature flowers. Petals white, turning rusty brown with age, persistent, 6-8 mm long, 4-5 mm broad near the apex. Stamens united at the base for less than 1 mm, free portion varying slightly in length, the longest about 4 mm long; anthers 0.75 mm long; staminodes up to 5 mm long. Ovary appressedly stellate-tomentose, suboblate, about 1.5 mm long, 2 mm diam., 3-or rarely 4-celled; style about 1.5 mm long, branches 3, sometimes 4, about 3 mm long, rather thick and revolute; ovules usually 2 in a cell, smooth, hard, yellow. Capsule 4 mm long, 3.5 mm in diameter, stellate-tomentose with short hairs (under 1 mm long); seeds usually only one developing and filling the capsule, rough with raised lines.

River banks, in forest margins, and in semi-evergreen bushland and scrub forest, often in rocky locations, at elevations up to 1,200 metres.

Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings.