Directory       News       Site Map       Home
         
    Jepson eFlora
Key to families | Table of families and genera

This text currently parallels The Jepson Manual: Vascular Plants of California, Second Edition that is now available at the University of California Press.

Text appearing in blue on this page will not appear in the printed book; it will be displayed only on the Web. Specimen numbers are hyperlinked to records in the Consortium of California Herbaria data view where possible. Taxa are hyperlinked to entries in the Jepson Interchange via the "[Online Interchange]" link.

 

HIBISCUS HIBISCUS
Annual, perennial herb, subshrub [ shrub, tree].
Stem: generally erect, bristly or stellate-hairy to ± glabrous.
Leaf: generally simple, cordate, palmate-lobed or -divided or not, ± entire to dentate or crenate-dentate, palmate-veined, tip acute or acuminate; stipules generally persistent.
Inflorescence: raceme, open, or flowers 1 in leaf axils; flowering stalks often jointed in upper 1/3; bractlets 8–10(20), free or basally fused, generally narrow, persistent.
Flower: generally showy, open <= 1 day; calyx 5-lobed; petals white, yellow, lavender, red, or other colors, often with dark basal spot; filament tube 5-toothed at tip, anthers scattered on upper 1/2 below tip; style distally 5-branched, stigmas head-like.
Fruit: capsule loculicidal, 5-chambered, ovoid or oblong, glabrous or hairy.
Seed: several per chamber, hairy or ± glabrous.
200 species: especially Am, Africa, Asia, Australia. (Greek: mallow) Other taxa, such as Hibiscus syriacus L., rose-of-Sharon, cultivated, possibly escaped.
Unabridged etymology: (Greek: hibiscos, a name for a mallow)
Unabridged references: [Fryxell 1988 Syst Bot Monogr 25:192–232]

Key to Hibiscus

1. Annual; petals yellow with dark basal spot; calyx inflated, bladder-like in fruit ..... H. trionum

1' Perennial or subshrub; petals white, lavender, to rose; calyx not inflated in fruit

2. Lf blade 1–3 cm, ovate; flowers in leaf axils; flower stalk 0.5–1.5 cm; sepals fused only at base; petals 2–2.7 cm; seed densely silky; dry habitats ..... H. denudatus

2' Lf blade 6–10 cm, cordate; flowers near stem tip; flower stalk 1–8 cm; sepals fused 1/2; petals 6–10 cm; seed glabrous; wet habitats ..... H. lasiocarpos var. occidentalis

Contact/Feedback

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) [year] Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/IJM.html [accessed on month, day, year]
Citation for an individual treatment: [Author of taxon treatment] [year]. [Taxon name] in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, [URL for treatment]. Accessed on [month, day, year].
We encourage links to these pages, but the content may not be downloaded for reposting, repackaging, redistributing, or sale in any form, without written permission from The Jepson Herbarium.