Hibiscus

Hibiscus is a genus of herbs, shrubs, subshrubs and rarely small trees in the Malvaceae or mallow family. The generic name is derived from the Greek word ibískos that Dioscorides gave to Althaea officinalis in the first century CE (or AD). This is a European plant commonly known as the marsh mallow, also a member of the Malvaceae. Marshmallow sweets of various types have been made since ancient times according to Egyptian records, using this plant.

Some Hibiscus plants bear star-shaped hairs on certain plant parts. The alternate leaves are simple, lobed or digitately compound.

The often showy flowers grow solitary from leaf axils, or in stem-tip racemes and sometimes corymbs on articulated pedicels. An epicalyx is often present below the calyx, comprising from five to twenty bracts that are usually as long as the sepals. There is a persistent calyx of five lobes or sepals below the corolla, in some species replaced by ten teeth.

The five petals are mostly longer than the sepals, free or fused to the staminal tube at its base. Corolla colour is often yellow with a dark purple base, or completely red, pink, purple or white. Each flower lasts only one day or less. 

The staminal tube with squared-off end bears numerous anthers all along its length, or only in its upper half. The superior ovary or gynoecium has four or five locules, each containing multiple ovules. There are as many thread-like branches at the style-tip as there are carpels or locules below. The stigmas at the tips of the style branches are usually discoid, although some end in compact heads.

Several butterflies, some of the Charaxes genus, are attracted to Hibiscus flowers.

The fruit is a capsule in which each locule dehisces separately. The seeds are globose or kidney-shaped, their surfaces glabrous or hairy.

There are about 300 Hibiscus species, mainly in the tropical regions on earth, less prevalent in the temperate regions. More than 50 of them occur in southern Africa, poorly represented in the south of the country, the fynbos and the Little Karoo.

Several species are commonly cultivated garden ornamentals, while a few invade as bothersome weeds in certain areas, particularly Hibiscus cannabinus and H. trionum.

The plant in picture is H. pusillus (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; Pooley, 1998; Bromilow, 1995; Wikipedia).