Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L.

It is most extensively cultivated as an ornamental plant and occurs in many forms in Pakistan.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis is a very popular flowering shrub or houseplant with a great many cultivars. Plants with double flowers have been named as var. rubroplenus Sweet (重瓣朱槿 chong ban zhu jin).

A glabrate, 1-5 m tall shrub. Leaves 4-8 cm long, 2-5 cm broad, lobed or not, ovate to broadly ovate, serrate-dentate; stipules 5-10 mm long, linear; petiole 0.5-2 cm long. Flowers axillary, solitary, erect or subpendulous, single or double; pedicel 1-8 cm long, articulate near the top. Epicalyx segments 6-9, 5-15 mm long, linear or linear-lanceolate. Calyx tubular-campanulate, 1.5-2.5 cm long; lobes 5-15 mm long, triangular to lanceolate. Corolla 4-9 cm across, pinkish to red, with or without dark centre, petals obovate or oblong-obovate, 5-9 cm long, 3-7 cm broad, obtuse or irregularly lobed at apex. Staminal column exserted, antherifierous near the apex. Capsule c. 2 cm long, glabrous, ovoid.

Shrubs evergreen, 1-3 m tall. Branchlets terete, sparsely stellate pilose. Stipules filiform, 5-12 mm, hairy; petiole 5-20 mm, villous; leaf blade broadly or narrowly ovate, not lobed, 4-9 × 2-5 cm, papery, pilose on veins abaxially only, base rounded or cuneate, margin dentate or lobed, apex acuminate. Flowers solitary, axillary on upper branches, usually pendulous, simple or double. Pedicel 3-7 cm, sparsely stellate pilose or nearly glabrous, articulate near apex. Epicalyx lobes 6-7, filiform, connate at base, 8-15 mm, sparsely stellate, apex obtuse or acute. Calyx campanulate, ca. 2 cm, stellate puberulent, lobes 5, ovate to lanceolate. Corolla rosy red, reddish, or orange-yellow, funnel-shaped, 6-10 cm in diam., often double; petals obovate, pilose abaxially, apex rounded. Staminal column 4-8 cm, glabrous. Style branches 5. Capsule ovoid, ca. 2.5 cm, glabrous, apex beaked. Fl. year-round.

Of uncertain, possibly E. African origin. Widely cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics.

Distribution: It has been said to be native to China. But its native home is still unknown. It is presumed that it originated in East Africa as the related species Hibiscus schizopetalus L. was first collected in wild stage in this area (Borssum Waalkes 1966).

900-1400 m

● Cultivated as an ornamental. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [not known in the wild but believed to have originated in China; now widely cultivated].