Malva de risco, higuereta (Navaea phoenicea)

Very branched and well developed, up to 3.5 m. Leaves are palmately lobed. Flowers are orangey or salmon pink and clustered at the tip—similar to hibiscus flowers. The flowers appear before or just when the leaves are beginning to sprout, between late summer and early winter, unlike the Lavatera acerifolia, another endemic of the Canary Islands, which flowers between winter and spring. Native to Tenerife, restricted to the northern flanks of the two old mountain blocks (Anaga and Teno), where it is confined to thermophile vegetation, often growing on rocks, and is considered an endangered species. An interesting feature of this species is that it is pollinated by small birds, such as the Canary Islands chiffchaff (Phylloscopus canariensis), the Sardinian warbler (Sylvia melanocephala) and the African blue tit (Cyanistes teneriffae).