Comfortroot

Hibiscus aculeatus, comfortroot or pineland hibiscus, is an erect perennial herb of the family Malvaceae growing 1-2 m tall from a thick, woody, perennial rootstock. The stems and leaf-stalks are rough with stiff, star-shaped (stellate) hairs and small, hooked prickles, which give the plant its specific epithet 'aculeatus' (prickly). Leaves are alternate, deeply 3-5 lobed in a palmate pattern, 5-15 cm long, the lobes lance-shaped and coarsely toothed. The showy solitary flowers, 8-12 cm across, open creamy-white to pale yellow with a deep crimson-purple eye and a central column of stamens; they last only one day and turn pinkish on fading. The fruit is a hairy, five-valved capsule containing several brown, kidney-shaped seeds. Native to wet pine flatwoods, savannas, and bog edges of the southeastern United States Coastal Plain from North Carolina south to Florida and west to Texas.