From Will Parsons on Google+, this mystery plant:
A real plant — Will took the photo himself. He adds that inside the pink bracts are little purple flowers.
I didn’t recognize it, and didn’t find it in a search on {“pink bracts” “purple flowers”}. Anyone know this plant?
[News flash, with identifications from three people:
Will Parsons: Pavonia (Hibiscus family). Tropical, needs good morning light. Can’t confirm safe for dogs [a concern for Will] but the people at Garden Hood said 99% sure not a problem.
Nick Fitch: It’s a Brazilian Candle by the looks of it (Pavonia × gledhillii). Lots of pictures here (on Top Tropicals site).
Michael Warhol: I think I’ve found it. It looks like a Brazilian candle (Pavonia multiflora). I did a Google (text) search for tropical plant pink bracts purple flowers, and just picked a few results to look at.
By the way, TinEye doesn’t seem to be all that great a reverse image search engine (or maybe they just haven’t compiled a big enough database of images yet.). I tried it with your picture and got nothing, and then I tried it with some common-seeming images (a frog, a wasp, another mystery flower) and all of them got 0 results.
From Wikipedia, which has a minimal entry:
Pavonia is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. The generic name honours Spanish botanist José Antonio Pavón Jiménez (1754-1844).
(I’d been expecting an etymology having to do directly with peacocks — Latin pāvō pāvōnis ‘peacock’ — but instead it is (like so many of these botanical names) derived from a proper name.)
Most pavonias look like ordinary hibiscus flowers, but this one is different.
Top Tropicals has a bit more:
Pavonia multiflora, Triplochlamys multifora, Pavonia x Gledhillii
Family: Malvaceae
Brazilian candles
Origin: Brazil
One of our most interesting shrubs. A vertical grower with green leaves and unusual dark pink and purple upright flowers with blue stamens that look like they are not fully opened. Flowers cover the whole plant sometimes. This plant exudes on stems and leaves, and after the liquid dries out, it leaves very attractive crystals, shining in the sunlight. Prefers filtered light and high air humidity. Very cold sensitive plant.
Three views. With the bracts opened up and the stamen still hidden:
Now with the stamen emerging:
And with the stamen standing out dramatically:
The bracts range from pink through red, the stamens from blue through purple.]
