美丽芙蓉 mei li fu rong

Shrubs deciduous, erect, to 3 m tall, entire plant densely stellate puberulent. Stipules lanceolate, ca. 5 mm, caducous; petiole terete, 6-11 cm; leaf blade cordate, 8-12 × 10-15 cm, papery, palmately 5-11-veined, usually 7-lobed proximally, usually 3-5-lobed distally, lobe margins irregularly dentate or entire, apices acuminate or obtuse. Flowers solitary, axillary on upper branchlets. Pedicel 6-15 cm, articulate at apex. Epicalyx lobes 4 or 5, ovate, connate at base, ca. 20 × 8-12 mm, densely stellate tomentose, apex obtuse or acute. Calyx cup-shaped, ca. 2.5 cm, lobes 5, ovate, connate for 1/3 of length, densely stellate tomentose. Corolla pink to white, 7-10 cm in diam.; petals obovate, ca. 6.5 cm, barbate at base, abaxially stellate hairy. Staminal column 3.5-4 cm. Style sparsely villous. Capsule nearly globose, ca. 3 cm in diam., hirsute; mericarps 5-6. Seeds reniform, ca. 3 mm, densely ferruginous puberulent. Fl. Jul-Dec.

● Scrub in valleys, coral limestone; 700-2000 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan.

Hibiscus indicus, despite its name, seems to be a Chinese endemic that was brought into cultivation and introduced to India and Indonesia more than 200 years ago (Borssum Waalkes, Blumea 14: 67. 1966).