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bladder ketmia, flower-of-an-hour, ketmie trilobée, modesty, rosemallow, Venice mallow, Venice rose-mallow

Chinese lantern, fringe rose-mallow or hibiscus, fringe rosemallow

Habit Herbs, annual, to 0.6(–1) m, herbage throughout with mixture of coarse, simple or few-armed stellate hairs and fine, many-armed stellate hairs. Shrubs or trees, to 3(–5) m. Stems: new growth essentially glabrous, lines of curved hairs absent.
Stems

also with line of fine, curved hairs extending from node to node.

Leaves

linear, 1–2.5 cm, margins ± ciliate.

stipules narrowly triangular, 1–2.5 mm;

petiole to 1/3 blade, adaxial groove hairy with minute, ± sinuous hairs;

blade lanceolate-ovate to ovate, unlobed, 3.5–10.5 × 1.5–4 cm, base rounded to cuneate, margins coarsely serrate in distal 2/3–3/4, apex acute to short-acuminate, ± pinnately veined, surfaces glabrate, nectary present abaxially on midvein near base.

Inflorescences

solitary flowers in axils of distal leaves.

Pedicels

jointed at middle or distally, 7.5–15 cm;

involucellar bractlets 6–8, triangular, 0.06–0.18 cm, margins not ciliate.

Flowers

lasting a few hours, ascending or erect;

calyx divided 1/2 length, campanulate, 0.8–1.8 cm, accrescent and conspicuously inflating to enclose fruit, becoming scarious, primary veins zigzag, lobes broadly trullate, apices acute, nectaries absent;

corolla rotate, petals yellow or cream with conspicuous purple-brown spot basally, purplish abaxially where exposed in bud, obovate to broadly obovate, 1.5–3(–4) × 1–2(–3) cm, apical margins repand, finely hairy abaxially where exposed in bud;

staminal column dark red to purple, 0.4–0.7(–1.1) cm, abruptly expanded below to form cup over ovary, bearing filaments in distal 1/2, free portion of filaments not secund, 2–3(–5) mm;

pollen yellow-orange;

styles usually white to cream, yellowish, or maroon, 2–3(–6) mm;

stigmas dark red to purple.

pendulous;

calyx divided 1/8–1/2 length, often 3-lobed, tubular to narrowly funnelform, (1–)1.4–2 cm, lobes broadly triangular, apices acute to obtuse, glabrate, neither accrescent nor inflated, nectaries absent;

petals strongly recurved, rose-pink to red, darker on veins, broadly to narrowly obovate, deeply and irregularly pinnatifid-laciniate, 4–6.5 × 1.5–3.5 cm, glabrous;

staminal column straight or curved apically, pendulous, pink to red, 5.5–9 cm, bearing filaments in distal 1/3–1/2, free portion of filaments not secund, 4.5–7.5 mm;

pollen yellow;

styles pink to red, 7–15 mm;

stigmas pink to red.

Capsules

dark brown-black, ellipsoid to ovoid, 1.2–1.5 cm, apex obtuse to broadly acute, hairy.

brown, oblong-cylindric, 3.5–4 cm, glabrous or puberulent.

Seeds

dark gray-brown, reniform-ovoid, somewhat depressed laterally, 2–2.5 mm, sparingly and minutely papillose.

brown, angulately reniform-ovoid, 2–3 mm, smooth, glabrous or puberulent.

2n

= 28, 56 (both cultivars).

= 34, 40, 42, 45 (all cultivars).

Hibiscus trionum

Hibiscus schizopetalus

Phenology Flowering Jul–Nov. Flowering year-round.
Habitat Cultivated and waste places Disturbed sites
Elevation 10–1800 m (0–5900 ft) 0–50 m (0–200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; MB; NB; NS; ON; PE; QC; SK; Eurasia; Africa; Pacific Islands (New Zealand); Australia [Introduced in North America; introduced also in West Indies (Jamaica)]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
FL; e Africa [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America, s Asia, elsewhere in Africa, Pacific Islands, Australia]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Hibiscus trionum is occasionally cultivated. It is native in Africa, Eurasia, and perhaps also in parts of New Zealand and Australia, where both diploids and tetraploids occur (B. G. Murray et al. 2008). Most wild plants in

North America have low, widely spreading branches; some cultivated forms are strictly erect and much taller than the weedy forms.

Three species have been segregated from Hibiscus trionum in Australia and New Zealand (L. A. Craven et al. 2011), and the name H. trionum has now been lectotypified (D. Iamonico and L. Peruzzi 2014). A further splitting of the species in other parts of its range might consequently affect the name of plants in the flora area.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Apparently native only in Kenya, Tanzania, and perhaps Mozambique, Hibiscus schizopetalus is widely cultivated in the Tropics and occasionally escapes. The occurrence in many H. rosa-sinensis cultivars of semipendulous, long-pedicelled flowers with variously

crenate, undulate petals suggests the involvement of H. schizopetalus. Hybrids between H. schizopetalus and H. rosa-sinensis can be called H. ×archeri W. Watson. Typification of H. schizopetalus was discussed by M. Cheek (1989).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 6, p. 266. FNA vol. 6, p. 261.
Parent taxa Malvaceae > subfam. Malvoideae > Hibiscus Malvaceae > subfam. Malvoideae > Hibiscus
Sibling taxa
H. acetosella, H. aculeatus, H. biseptus, H. clypeatus, H. coccineus, H. coulteri, H. dasycalyx, H. denudatus, H. furcellatus, H. grandiflorus, H. laevis, H. martianus, H. moscheutos, H. mutabilis, H. poeppigii, H. radiatus, H. rosa-sinensis, H. schizopetalus, H. striatus, H. syriacus
H. acetosella, H. aculeatus, H. biseptus, H. clypeatus, H. coccineus, H. coulteri, H. dasycalyx, H. denudatus, H. furcellatus, H. grandiflorus, H. laevis, H. martianus, H. moscheutos, H. mutabilis, H. poeppigii, H. radiatus, H. rosa-sinensis, H. striatus, H. syriacus, H. trionum
Synonyms H. rosa-sinensis var. schizopetalus
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 697. (1753) (Dyer) Hooker f.: Bot. Mag. 106: plate 6524. (1880)
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