Variegated flowering maple

Abutilon pictum, or flowering maple, is a soft-wooded shrub from South America grown worldwide for its maple-shaped leaves and dangling bell-shaped flowers with veined petals. The famous 'Thompsonii' form has leaves splashed with bright yellow, a variegation caused by a harmless mosaic virus that is passed on through cuttings.

• The yellow mottling of 'Thompsonii' is not a genetic trait but an infection with abutilon mosaic virus, deliberately kept alive by gardeners.
• Despite the nickname 'flowering maple', it is not a maple at all but a relative of hibiscus, cotton and okra.
• The pendulous flowers are built for hummingbirds and sunbirds, and in the Azores they are worked mainly by bees.

Care
Give it rich, moist but well-drained soil in bright light with some afternoon shade, and pinch back the leggy stems to keep it bushy.