''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'', known colloquially as Chinese hibiscus, China rose, Hawaiian hibiscus, rose mallow and shoeblack plant, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of tropical hibiscus, a

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the Hibisceae

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Malvaceae. It is widely cultivated as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...

in the tropics and subtropics, but its native range is Vanuatu.

Description

Citrus swallowtails (Papilio demodocus) Principe

Tree and leaves

''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'' is a bushy,

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, whic ...

shrub or small

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

growing tall and wide. The plant has a branched

taproot A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally. Typically a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows directly downward. In some plants, such as the carrot, the taproo ...

. Its stem is aerial, erect, green, cylindrical, and branched. Its leaves are simple and petiolate, with alternate ''phyllotaxy''. The leaf shape is ovate, the tip is acute, and the margin is serrated. ''Venation'' is unicostate reticulate, meaning the leaves' veins are branched or divergent. Its surface is glossy. Free lateral

stipule In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole). Stipules are considered part of the anatomy of the leaf of a typical flowering plant, although in many speci ...

s are present.

Flowers

Its flowers bloom in summer and autumn. They are solitary ( axillary) and symmetrical. They are typically red, with five petals in diameter, with prominent orange-tipped red anthers. Cultivars and hybrids have flowers in a variety of colors as well as red: white, pink, orange, peach, yellow, blue, and purple. Some plants have double flowers. Chinarose1

At the bottom of every hibiscus bud is the calyx, which is green in color. The pointed ends of the calyx are called the sepals. When the hibiscus begins to bloom, the flower's petals begin to grow. Each hibiscus flower has both male and female parts. The ovary and other female parts of the flower lie in the main structure of the hibiscus: the pistil, which is long and tubular. The five "hairy" spots at the top of the pistil make up the stigma, which is where pollen is collected. In the middle of the pistil is the style, which is the tube down which pollen travels to the ovary. The ovary lies at the bottom of the blossom, and each hibiscus has only one superior ovary. The male part of the flower, called the stamen, consists of stem-like filaments and anthers. Each filament ends with the pollen-producing anther.

Taxonomy

''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'' was first described in 1753 by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

in '' Species Plantarum''. The specific epithet ''rosa-sinensis'' literally means "rose of China", although the plant is not closely related to true roses, nor is it from China. The genus ''Hibiscus'' is in the tribe Hibisceae and the subfamily Malvoideae of the family Malvaceae.

Ecology

Despite its size and colorful hues which are typically attractive to nectarivore birds, the flowers of ''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'' are not visited regularly by hummingbirds when grown in the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

Generalist species A generalist species is able to thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and can make use of a variety of different natural resource, resources (for example, a heterotroph with a varied diet (nutrition), diet). A specialist species can ...

, like the

sapphire-spangled emerald The sapphire-spangled emerald (''Chionomesa lactea'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is regularly found in Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela; as a vagrant in Argentina; and has p ...

(''Amazilia lactea),'' or long-billed species, like the stripe-breasted starthroat (''Heliomaster squamosus'') are occasionally seen to visit the flowers. In the subtropical and temperate

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, hummingbirds are regularly attracted to hibiscus. The endangered ''

Papilio homerus ''Papilio homerus'', commonly known as the Homerus swallowtail or Jamaican swallowtail, is the largest butterfly species in the Western Hemisphere. The species is endangered and faces a potentially bleak future. Only two small populations of the ...

'' butterfly, the largest in the western hemisphere, is known to feed on the nectar of the ''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis''.

Genetics

''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'' is one of many plant species with a genetic characteristic known as

polyploidy Polyploidy is a condition in which the biological cell, cells of an organism have more than one pair of (Homologous chromosome, homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have Cell nucleus, nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they ha ...

, a condition in which the species has more than two complete sets of chromosomes. A result of polyploidy is that the

phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological pr ...

of a plant's offspring may be quite different from the parent plant, or indeed any ancestor, essentially allowing possibly random expression of any (or all) of the characteristics of previous generations. Because of this characteristic, ''H. rosa-sinensis'' has become popular with hobbyists who cross and recross varieties, creating new varieties. Competitions are held to exhibit and judge the many resulting new seedlings and often strikingly unique flowers.

Uses

The flowers of ''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'' are edible and are used in salads in the Pacific Islands. The flower is used as an accessory, particularly as a hairpiece. It is also used to shine shoes in certain parts of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, hence the common name "shoeblack plant". In

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, these flowers are called "kembang sepatu" or "bunga sepatu", which literally means "shoe flower". The flower can also be used as a pH indicator; when used, the flower turns acidic solutions to a dark pink or magenta color and turns basic solutions to green. Red hibiscus flowers are also used for worship; in Hinduism, they are used for the worship of Devi, and in the

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

area of eastern

, they are used to worship

Kali Kali (; sa, काली, ), also referred to as Mahakali, Bhadrakali, and Kalika ( sa, कालिका), is a Hindu goddess who is considered to be the goddess of ultimate power, time, destruction and change in Shaktism. In this tra ...

. The hibiscus also has an important part in

tantra Tantra (; sa, तन्त्र, lit=loom, weave, warp) are the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism that developed on the Indian subcontinent from the middle of the 1st millennium CE onwards. The term ''tantra'', in the Indian ...

. In several countries the flowers are dried to use in a beverage, usually

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

. ''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'' is considered to have a number of medical uses in

Chinese herbology Chinese herbology () is the theory of traditional Chinese herbal therapy, which accounts for the majority of treatments in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). A ''Nature'' editorial described TCM as "fraught with pseudoscience", and said that t ...

. Traditional uses in China have been to make a black shoe-polish from its flower petals, or to make a woman's black hair dye. The flowers are also used in parts of China to color various intoxicating liquors. The plant may have some potential in cosmetic skin care; for example, an extract from the flowers of ''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'' has been shown to function as an anti-solar agent by absorbing

ultraviolet radiation Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation i ...

Cultivation

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis bud captured at noon in West Bengal

White coloured flower bud of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis at night

''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'' is widely grown as an

throughout the

tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referr ...

and subtropics. As it does not tolerate temperatures below , in

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...

regions it is best grown under glass. Plants grown in containers may be placed outside during the summer months and moved into shelter during the winter months. Numerous

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

s exist, with flower colors ranging from white through yellow and orange to scarlet and shades of pink, with both single and double sets of petals. The cultivar 'Cooperi' has gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

's Award of Garden Merit.

National symbol

''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'' is the national flower of

, called ''bunga raya'' in Malay. This can be translated in a number of ways, including "great flower" or "celebratory flower." Introduced into the Malay Peninsula in the 12th century, it was nominated as the national flower in the year 1958 by the Ministry of Agriculture amongst a few other flowers, namely

ylang ylang ''Cananga odorata'', known as ylang-ylang ( ) or cananga tree, is a tropical tree that is native to the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Queensland, Australia. It is also native to parts of Thailand and Viet ...

, jasmine, lotus,

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...

, and

medlar ''Mespilus germanica'', known as the medlar or common medlar, is a large shrub or small tree in the rose family Rosaceae. The fruit of this tree, also called medlar, has been cultivated since Roman times, is usually available in winter and ea ...

. On July 28, 1960, it was declared by the government of Malaysia that ''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'' would be the national flower. The red of the petals symbolizes the courage, life, and rapid growth of the Malaysian people, and the five petals represent the five '' Rukun Negara'' of Malaysia. The flower can be found imprinted on the notes and coins of the Malaysian ringgit. ''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'' is an unofficial national flower in Haiti, where it has been used as a symbol for the promotion of tourism. The flower is also the symbol of the

Fusion of Haitian Social Democrats The Fusion of Haitian Social Democrats ( ht, Fizyon Sosyodemokrat Ayiti, ; french: Fusion des Sociaux-Démocrates Haïtiens, ) —also translated in some sources as ''Union of Haitian Social Democrats''— is a political party in Haiti. History ...

political party. It is known in Haitian Creole language as ''choeblack'' or ''rose kayenn''. The yellow variety of the hibiscus is the official flower of Hawaiʻi, where it is often hybridized and is worn ornamentally in the hair and in lei. In Hawaiian, hibiscus is called ''aloalo.''

Cultural references

*In March 1987,

DPR Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

issued a

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...

depicting ''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis''. *On October 7, 2012, Sri Lanka issue
a stamp set of four
one of which depicted a ''Hibiscus rosa-sinensis'' flower.

Gallery

Cultivars with flowers of many colours are used as ornamental plants. Some have double petals or have differently shaped petals. File:Cayena (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis), jardín del molino, Sierra de San Felipe, Setúbal, Portugal, 2012-05-11, DD 02.JPG File:Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Brilliant' flower in private Austrian garden on 2014-09-20.png File:Orange Hibiscus1.jpg File:Starr 070313-5691 Hibiscus rosa-sinensis.jpg File:Hibiscus A.JPG File:Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Rainbow Sherbet' flower in private Austrian garden on 2014-09-20.png File:3935 - Chinesischer Roseneibisch (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis).JPG File:Hibiscus (5).jpg File:Hibiscus rosa-sinensis white-pink.jpg File:Shoe Flower Dehradun 2009.jpg File:Pink Hibiscus at Sakherbazar ,Kolkata.jpg File:Starr 061223-2694 Hibiscus rosa-sinensis.jpg File:Hibiscus rosa-sinensis in Zijderveld, the Netherlands.JPG File:Hibiscus rosa-sinensis flower in private Austrian garden on 2016-03-20.png File:Closeup of multi color Hibiscus at Sakherbazar, Kolkata.jpg File:Hibiscus At Kerala.jpg File:Shoeblackplant (White Hibiscus).jpg File:Shoeblackplant (Light Pink Hibiscus).jpg File:朱槿 Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 20201012185058 01.jpg File:朱槿 Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 20201028130147 02.jpg File:Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Hong Kong Park, December 2019 03.jpg File:Hibiscus Plant.jpg File:Hibiscus Lamma Island Hong Kong 20191105 140532.jpg File:The rising china rose.jpg

References

External links

*Hibiscus rosa-sinensis(India)(http://in.pinterest.com/pin/ * (2005): Beija-flores (Aves, Trochilidae) e seus recursos florais em uma área urbana do Sul do Brasil ummingbirds (Aves, Trochilidae) and their flowers in an urban area of southern Brazil ortuguese with English abstract''Revista Brasileira de Zoologia'' 22(1): 51–59. PDF fulltext
* * The International Hibiscus Society

* The American Hibiscus Society

* The Australian Hibiscus Society Inc.

* Hibiscusmania (France)

* Hibiscusfreunde (Germany)

* Hibiscus Forrest (Hungary)

The Hibiscus
(Gurgaon) {{Malaysia topics Hibiscus, rosa-sinensis Garden plants of Asia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus National symbols of Malaysia